The Book Of Illusions - Paul Auster

Paul Auster is one of those authors that specialises in grabbing you right at the beginning. The Book Of Illusions immerses the reader in the shattered psyche of the narrator, David Zimmer, whose life has been ripped apart by the death of his wife and two children in a plane crash. There are very few other writers who can translate the darkest, negative aspects of human emotional experience into such concise, accessible English, and the effect of Auster's urgent, crisp language is to win the attention and trust of the reader immediately. Looking for any kind of distraction from his unbearable ... more

The best Auster I have read; a gripping, well-researched and utterly plausible book. While other Auster books (e.g. The New York Trilogy) may be more seminal and influential, this is both accessible and significant. The story is of an author dealing with his own ghosts though his writing aboput and meeting with a reclusive, presumed dead silent-movie star. The characters - expecially the narrator - are utterly convincing. The story of the narrator's past personal trauma and his subsequent attempts to rebuild and refocus his life is fascinating and moving. A summary doesn't begin to do justice ... more