The Invention of Solitude is the debut work of Paul Auster, a memoir published in 1982. The book is divided into two parts, Portrait of an Invisible Man, which concerns the sudden death of Auster's father, and The Book of Memory, in which Auster delivers his personal opinions concerning subjects such as coincidence, fate, and solitude, subjects that have become trademarks of Auster's works.
The first part of the book is about Auster's father, a m...
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The Invention of Solitude is the debut work of Paul Auster, a memoir published in 1982. The book is divided into two parts, Portrait of an Invisible Man, which concerns the sudden death of Auster's father, and The Book of Memory, in which Auster delivers his personal opinions concerning subjects such as coincidence, fate, and solitude, subjects that have become trademarks of Auster's works.
The first part of the book is about Auster's father, a man barely present to his son, is the subject of this memoir/meditation. "Invisible to others, and most likely invisible to himself as well". Auster reconstructs his father's life from artifacts left behind after his sudden but quiet death.
The second part of the book comes across as more of a critical essay concerning many of the themes found in Auster's works: the order of events, absurdism, chance. Although The Book of Memory is slightly less autobiographical than Portrait of an Invisible Man, it is also a personal account of opinions and...
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