The Worlds of Paul Auster, A Popular Novelist

Paul Auster is a leading writer in America today who had a profound effect on my views on becoming a writer. Without Paul Auster I might have never tried that first short story, or novel, or even work of non-fiction. He altered my views on what could be done with a fictional story.

Let me explain. Auster is known for his literary fiction, from "City of Glass" to the recent "The Brooklyn Follies." In each of those tales, it's obvious his interest in the field of literture, as well as having strong characters. They don't live in perfect utopias, instead they tend to bend to be more like literary detectives, perhaps a modern version of Sherlock Holmes. There aren't always mysteries to be solved, but it seems often the novels of Paul Auster do have these elements. He toyed with it mostly in "City of Glass," which was the Paul Auster take on what a surreal mystery should be. "City of Glass" inspired my first short story and, thought it was horrible, this led to my becoming a writer of fiction. In "City of Glass" the narrator gets a wrong number and says that he is really the person they were trying to call. Auster then takes readers down the road of an unfolding mystery narrative.

Most Paul Auster fiction is told from the 1^st person, which is interesting as this can be even harder to write in. Auster brings his characters to life in the best fashion, using this 1^st person narration to incorporate his own thoughts and feelings. Often Auster's characters have an interest in writing or books, and this leads to all sorts of mysteries.

What it all amounts to is some of the best works of fiction in the last twenty years. "City of Glass" would be my favorite Auster book of all time, but the recent "Brooklyn Follies" was far superior than the last few novels he published.

What makes Paul Auster tick? It seems even he got a few rejections, and went through spells of trying to earn money as a writer. As noted in "Hand to Mouth," he did everything from cleaning the decks of Oil Drills to translating works in other languages. If I recall correctly, in one of his memoirs he told of translating a North Vietnam constitution at one point. He also translated a lot of poetry, which makes since because his style is poetic.

Of all the writers of the last ten years, I think Paul Auster is the most engaging and interesting novelist. He deserves all the recognition he gets, if not more. If you're a writer trying to break into literary fiction, start with Fitzgerald and Hemingway, then work your way into more modern pieces by the likes of Paul Auster and Michael Chabon.