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I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project
 
 
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I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project (Paperback)

~ Paul Auster (Editor) "THE RESURGENCE of the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s was a phenomenon nobody has fully explained..." (more)
Key Phrases: wash guilt, list pad, niv father, New York, Aunt Myrtle, Marcia Lynn (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project + This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women + Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When the call went out to listeners of National Public Radio's Weekend All Things Considered to submit stories about their personal experiences, the results were overwhelming. I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project contains editor Paul Auster's pick of the best submissions. The stories, whether fact or fiction, all exhibit a heartfelt earnestness to be heard, and share similar themes of bizarre coincidences, otherworldly intervention, love and loss, life-changing experiences, and mundane pleasures. Some are deeply moving, most are not. But it is uplifting and well worth the time to sift through these brief snapshots of our collective human experience.

To give the book shape, Auster has done his best to categorize the material by subject, such as Animals, Families, War, Love, Dreams, and the like. These categories hold true to the submission criteria: "[I was most interested in] stories that defied our expectations about the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls.... I was hoping to put together ... a museum of American reality." I Thought My Father Was God is a testament that, despite what on a bad day we may think is a drab existence, we all have a few good stories in us. --Michael Ferch --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



From Publishers Weekly

This is a moving collection of stories that realizes the audio format's best possibilities. Culled from a collaboration between novelist Auster (Leviathan) and National Public Radio's All Things Considered, these slices of the American experience are real-life tales from people all over the country on a range of subjects. Since Auster himself selected the stories, it's no surprise that they echo his own approach while reading them: comfortable and emotive, with dexterous use of the power of understatement. Auster's tone is engaging, if a bit mellow, but what comes across more than anything is his genuine concern for the stories themselves and his belief in their merits. He keeps his dramatization to a minimum in order to let those merits shine through, and the recording is sure to leave listeners alternately smiling, nostalgic or melancholic. Even if a particular piece doesn't strike a chord, listeners won't be disappointed for long, as one of the production's finer points is its variety. Each tale lasts only a few minutes, but many of the images linger much longer. And because the stories were originally intended for radio, this is one instance where the audio is preferred over the print version. Based on the Holt hardcover (Forecasts, June 4, 2001).

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; 1st THUS edition (September 7, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312421001
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312421007
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #117,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #17 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( A ) > Auster, Paul

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Customer Reviews

41 Reviews
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4.3 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous collection, November 16, 2001
By Jonathan Rimorin (Cormorant Island) - See all my reviews
At first blush, I was not impressed with this collection of true-life vignettes collected from NPR's National Story Project. I would leaf listlessly about the book looking for something -- a sentence, a title -- that would catch my interest, and reading the piece (none of the selections, I think, are any longer than four pages) in a second or two. Initially I was disgruntled by the style and voice of some pieces; they would not have been out of place in the "Life In These United States" Reader's Digest feature.

I don't know why I did not shelf the book and pick up something else, but I am glad that I persevered (uncharacteristic for me: I am quite superficial and fickle, overdependent on first impressions) because as I kept reading, I found something within me responding to these stories. Reviewers here have heckled the abundance of sentimentality and reductive life lessons that pulse through these pieces, but they're seeking a literary sophistication from texts that never aspire to anything more than the urge to tell a story. (In the words of one writer included in the collection, "What do you do with a story like [this]? There is no lesson, no moral, barely even an ending. You want to tell it, hear it told, but you don't know why.")

With that provisio, the patient reader will find pieces here of quiet movement, emotional honesty, jaw-dropping coincidence (a lot of these), eerie dreaminess, and everyday wonder. I especially like Joe Miceli's "Taking Leave," with its glimpse of a world I hope I never know; Mary Grace Dembeck's "Act of Memory," which made me cry; "Your Father Has The Hay Fever" by Tony Powell, which is as lunatic as anything by S.J. Perelman; "Table For Two" by Lori Peikoff, and Nicolas Wieder's "Ballerina," stories of love, coincidence, and hope.

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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A constant pick-me-up (in both senses of the phrase), November 12, 2001
By A Customer
This book is filled with hundreds of vignettes--some funny and some moving, but almost every one interesting (and NOT saccharine as I sort of expected them to be). I pick it up when I walk by it, read one, and feel re-connected and less numb. Give this to someone you know who's tired (it's easy reading) or sad or disconnected from daily reading or daily life. It revives the reader. Great stories. I hope NPR does another one.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars When life overcomes fiction, September 13, 2001
By Eric Vanasse (Montreal, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
This book is exceptional. I have read many books by Paul Auster and this one, although not technically written by Auster is true to this author's fascination with life's mysterious twists of fate. The stories assembled here are captivating, often deeply moving and sometimes hilarious.

The fact that these are all real stories makes the reader relates strongly to the people involved. These are rich with familiar characters (the grumpy neighbor who hates kids in the title story, the soft spoken grandfather who does not dare confront his wife in "Revenge", etc.) I could not put the book down.

In this day and age where so much attention is given to shallow story lines and pre-packaged entertainment, how refreshing it is to come across these incredible, yet so believable, stories that have happened to ordinary people.

The French version of the book has been published before the American version. This is how I got advanced reading of this wonderful collection of stories. Tip: Most of them make great bedtime stories as well. My 7 year old daughter really enjoys it.

I got the book from my public library but I want to buy it so I can go back to it again and again.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "I Thought My Father Was God"
This book was received in a timely manner and in the condition stated.
A great buy and an easy way to shop!!
Published 11 months ago by Gail Spindell

5.0 out of 5 stars 179 Reasons to Write
This is not a book by Paul Auster. It's a book by me. And you. And your smart neighbor. No, the other one, the smart, creative one. Read more
Published 15 months ago by K. L. Johnson

4.0 out of 5 stars Compilation of many stories that will move you
Heard I THOUGHT MY FATHER WAS GOD, edited and read by
Paul Auster . . . this is a collection of stories that came as a result
of a call to listeners of National... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Blaine Greenfield

5.0 out of 5 stars Life experiences encapsulated: Entertaining and Thought Provoking
The sheer variety of life experiences gives the reader a new perspective on their own lives, seeing how sometimes simple events can have a profound effect upon oneself or others... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Judith D. Hamel

5.0 out of 5 stars I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project
I had heard about this book from a friend. I not only enjoyed reading it, as I did so it gave me a greater appreaciation for my own father. Read more
Published on August 30, 2007 by Jersey Girl

5.0 out of 5 stars These stories are America, from one paragraph to three pages long.
I love the stories in this book. I love how they are written by "real" people, not professional writers. Read more
Published on December 4, 2005 by jamie g

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious!
This book gathers some of the funniest stories I've ever read, which is saying a lot since they were written by laymen, not professionals. Read more
Published on May 11, 2005 by Pen Name

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Stories Have Power
In some ways I THOUGHT MY FATHER WAS GOD could be called "Chicken Soup for the NPR Soul." Like the titles in the familiar "Chicken Soup" series, this is a collection of stories... Read more
Published on April 6, 2005 by Timothy Kearney

5.0 out of 5 stars Americana at its best
I came upon a British publication of this book when I was in Vienna. I was very sick at the time, and as a young single woman travelling alone through Europe for the summer, was... Read more
Published on November 25, 2004 by C. Shannon

4.0 out of 5 stars NOT Chicken
This is definitely not Chicken Soup and i couldn't be happier. I'm forcing myself to read this book slowly so the stories can soak in. Read more
Published on September 21, 2004 by ChicagoReader

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