Every time I return reading Paul Auster, I remember of the magic time of my early youth, when each of his books opened up new worlds of imagination and writing creativity. Long time before I got to know the Republic of Brooklyn myself, was hungry to breath and live in this place, as a place where wonderful human encounters can happen. I still believe that Brooklyn is one of the best places for stories in the whole America.
My latest book by him, a collection of articles, forewords and public interventions published as Talking to Strangers - read in the German version, very well translated by a group of translators as Mit Fremden Sprechen - is an intellectual tour de force of his literary sources and inspirations, but also a reminder that he was once a translator from French. His first wife, Lydia Davis is a prestigious French translator from Prous and Flaubert.
Such collections of articles - covering almost 50 years of writing - are important to understand an author´s work in the context of his lectures and extra-writing activities. And Paul Auster´s references are unique not as extravagant reading choices, but as reminders of deep burried, forgotten authors, particularly poets, such as Edmond Jabès or Charles Reznikoff or Hugo Ball.
One of the most important, in my opinion, article in the collection is a message of support for Salman Rushdie. ´In order to write a novel, one should have the freedom to say, what should be said´, he said, praising him for being able to return to his writing table after each day of dealing with death threads and a life in the hiding.
As everything written by Auster, Talking to Strangers is an expression of the human longing for storytelling, but also for poetry. Hope to find the time soon to publish two important reviews of his latest two books, hopefully in the next weeks. After reading it, I also feel inspired to return to poetry and some of the authors he mentioned in his previous articles.
Rating: 4.5 stars
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