The Book of Illusions: A Novel by Paul Auster (EPUB)

Description

A NATIONAL BESTSELLERA NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOKSix months after losing his wife and two young sons, Vermont Professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. One night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost film by silent comedian Hector Mann. His interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer’s mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico inviting him to meet Hector. Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “A nearly flawless work . . . Auster will be remembered as one of the great writers of our time.” ―San Francisco Chronicle“Mr. Auster’s elegant, finely calibrated Book of Illusions is a haunting feat of intellectual gamesmanship.” ―The New York Times“This noirish, layered tale will keep you guessing to the very end.” ―Time Out New York About the Author Paul Auster is the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and the New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. Among his other honors are the Prix Médicis étranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke, and the Premio Napoli for Sunset Park. In 2012, he was the first recipient of the NYC Literary Honors in the category of fiction. He has also been a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions), the PEN/Faulkner Award (The Music of Chance), the Edgar Award (City of Glass), and the Man Booker Prize (4 3 2 1). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I had recently just read 4321 which is his most recent and epic in scale. I was blown away by it to the extent of easily saying i have never read or experienced a work of art quite like it. I am always a fan of a larger work of art meaning i love jazz or instrumental music –long films, and long epic books. For me i love to be with the characters as long as possible for maximum reality suspension. I was sad to learn that 4321 was his longest novel. I was excited to read another one after – a return to modern times after 5 novels by Trollope. I picked Book of Illusions randomly. I loved this one as well being that is contained the elements that made 4321 great though it overall, did not hit me like the masterwork 4321. What i loved about this one is it maintains my positive impression of Austere the person. What i mean by this is he seems to make works of art that work on multiple aesthetic levels. I noticed this about his 2 films as well 1 he directed/wrote and the other he wrote. Art appreciation and the overall struggles of an artist is one of the first things that impressed me about his writing craft. Austere seems to constantly throw in historical info that makes the work seem borderline historical fiction. He uses great ways to connect historical events to his characters. This story takes place in the 1980’s. 4321 was the 50’s and 60’s and in that book he creates a disturbing picture of what it was like on a day to day basis on campus during the Vietnam war–he did it on a different way–where you feel very sympathetic for people dodging the draft. In Book of Illusions you learn a lot about the history of film with silent film being the focus.I will not get into the plot but talk about the themes and style.–This story is about learning to cope with loss and starting again after events in life that throw you off of you desired path. In this story the main character researches a silent film artist/ director he came across during a mourning period. He has recently lost loved ones and uses this silent film forgotten man as a way to deal with his depression.Austere creatively chooses silent film artists dealing with the death of their art form mixed with an outside individual who is also an artist utilizing their story as therapy therefore showcasing ultimately the power of art. This theme was all throughout 4321 and i hope it will continue in the next novel of his i read. This novel is also an experimental one just like 4321 in that in is delivered in an unconventional way. 4321 was literally 4 stories that go on at the same time and fuse together. Book of Illusions starts off with the story about the man investigating the silent film guy the n for the whole middle of the novel switches to a dramatic history of the silent film man not switching back to the original story for a long time. It is not clique in the way Austere does it.Austere is a master here at not giving you commercial fills like he does not check in on the original characters when he goes into the at times disturbing story about the silent film guy. His ending is not predictable and does not give the reader the mind candy tidbits that usually accompany this type of story. He keeps the story bright and shiny with genuinely tear jerking moments that are not forced in an overly sentimental way.

⭐This is one of the very finest books that I have ever read. It is a stunning achievement, and one does not or cannot walk away from this unmoved.`The Book of Illusions’ is an extraordinarily empathetic humanistic novel. Auster writes about identity, love, joy, loss, sadness, and hope. He speaks to the human condition.`The Book of Illusions’ provides an in-depth exploration of ones response to human brokenness, human hope, as well as human finitude. These responses are usually not fixed. They change, they grow, they evolve. This book speaks to this.The reader is first introduced to David Zimmer, and it is Zimmer’s voice we hear throughout this pitch-perfect novel. Zimmer has recently lost his family in a plane accident. He is unable to function and consequently leaves his position at a local college. Zimmer turns to alcohol spending his days drinking and in solitude. It is the laughter he feels from watching a silent film that brings life back to him. The actor in this silent film is one Hector Mann. Have you ever wondered if comedians are happy people?There are soul-searching, heart wrenching vignettes in this novel. When Zimmer visits a doctor for a prescription, he encounters Dr. Singh. When Dr. Singh listens to Zimmer’s heart, he understands. I read that passage a number of times thinking that Auster all but utilizes X-Rays into the human heart.There are many characters in this novel. Alma is one of these, and she has a pronounced birthmark on her face. People usually look at her, and she remarks to Zimmer ….’I knew that that purple blotch would always define me on my face. …..I knew what people were thinking. The birthmark was the test of their humanity. It measured the worth of their souls, and if I worked hard at it, I could see straight into them and know who they were.’ [Page 123]We see and feel everything through the eyes of David Zimmer. I willingly went along with Zimmer’s journey and had magical experiences.`The Book of Illusions’ has everything a reader could possibly want. Auster’s prose dances those fluid steps of only a professional. He constantly surprises the reader. Just when one thinks he/she knows where Auster is going, he takes one somewhere else.When I closed this book, I was left pondering immortality. `This life is only a prelude to eternity. For that which we call death is but a pause, in truth a progress into life.’ [Seneca]This book will command you to feel. It is unforgettable.

⭐This reads like a true experience and perhaps it is. Whatever, it is a very emotional and moving story of love, fascination and inexplicable tragedy. I recommend this author and intend to read more of his work. This book will long be remembered.

⭐This book kept me engaged from the first page. This was my first Paul Auster book, and it won’t be my last. I picked up “Burning Boy” and love it. Paul Auster really has great insight.

⭐A study of bereavementPaul Auster is a very clever writer and I enjoyed reading an author who was unfamilar to me, but I found moments of longeur in this book possibly because the main protagonist lacked empathy and had strong OCD tendencies. The book charts his breakdown over the death of his wife and sons and how he numbs his grief by immersing himself in the work of a lesser known actor of the silent film era, Hector Mann. By ‘immerse’, I mean we get a blow by blow analysis of every film this man has made. I felt that the knowledge of movie-making and of the life of Cateaubriand (another of his attempts to repress grief is to translate the 800 page Chateaudriand Memoir – ‘Notes form the Grave’) showed a lot of, possibly autobiographical, knowledge but did not make the central character sympathetic. At the end of the book, the pace quickens as the protagonist comes into contact with the dieing film artist, Hector, and he spends a surreal 24 hours on Hector’s hidden ranch in New Mexico. Much of what happens to the central charater has symbolic and metaphorical significance but I did find myself a lot of the time quite confused as to what these signifiers were.

⭐The Book of Illusions may be Paul Auster’s most complex novel and is certainly one of his best.The theme of the story is that we create “illusions” with our lives, which include our constantly changing self-perception and memories, the perceptions others have of us and the things we create that can last beyond our lives such as writings (or films, art, etc.), our children and the records and memories others have of our lives. The imaginative story has several dimensions that play on each other and build on the theme of illusions.The writing style has all of the characteristics of Auster’s other books, with crisp dialogue and a tinge of eeriness, fantasy and humour. However, he breaks new ground by employing certain innovative techniques, particularly the use of films as part of the novel. The descriptions of the films are incredibly realistic and detailed, covering camera angles, lighting and facial expressions. The extended scene-by-scene description of the Martin Frost film (which incidentally has the same theme as the book) is the highlight of the book.I thought the weakest part of the story was the recounting of Hector Mann’s life story, which was a bit too long and a too fantastical, but this small fault was outweighed by the strengths of the rest of the book, including the very strong ending that ties the entire book together.

⭐This is a superbly written book, gripping to the end. I read Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy when my son gave it to me as a Christmas gift. In the six weeks hence, I have also read Leviathan and The Book of Illusions, all of which I have had difficulty putting down once I started reading them. Paul is a hugely talented writer with the ability to weave ostensibly complex stories from tenuous threads, a real joy to witness as you go on that journey. My only disappointment is that I didn’t discover his writing years ago.

⭐Paul Austers latest work is a quite interesting book.The main character looses his family in a plane crash, but finds a shread of interest in life again when he becomes interested in an old silent movie director/actor named Hector Mann, who vanished many years ago. He writes a book about him, and suddenly recieves an interesting letter…A complex world of imagery, past and present sets the scene for this tour de force through coincidences, silent movies, love and catastrophes, all the while trying to make some sense of the people in the center of it all. The atmosphere of the book is somewhat gloomy, but very appealing and interesting. This is the first Auster book I’ve read – but not te last one 🙂

⭐I was highly recommended this book and, as always, looked it up onAmazon. It arrived quickly and in good condition.

Keywords

Free Download The Book of Illusions: A Novel in EPUB format
The Book of Illusions: A Novel EPUB Free Download
Download The Book of Illusions: A Novel 2009 EPUB Free
The Book of Illusions: A Novel 2009 EPUB Free Download
Download The Book of Illusions: A Novel EPUB
Free Download Ebook The Book of Illusions: A Novel