Report from the Interior

Product Description Paul Auster's most intimate autobiographical work to date In the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts . . . Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster now remembers the experience of his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world in Report from the Interior. From his baby's-eye view of the man in the moon, to his childhood worship of the movie cowboy Buster Crabbe, to the composition of his first poem at the age of nine, to his dawning awareness of the injustices of American life, Report from the Interior charts Auster's moral, political, and intellectual journey as he inches his way toward adulthood through the postwar 1950s and into the turbulent 1960s. Auster evokes the sounds, smells, and tactile sensations that marked his early life―and the many images that came at him, including moving images (he adored cartoons, he was in love with films), until, at its unique climax, the book breaks away from prose into pure imagery: The final section of Report from the Interior recapitulates the first three parts, told in an album of pictures. At once a story of the times―which makes it everyone's story―and the story of the emerging consciousness of a renowned literary artist, this four-part work answers the challenge of autobiography in ways rarely, if ever, seen before. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013 Review “Intimate, even claustrophobic, this journey into the author's memory banks reads like a primal scream, an attempt to relive his youth and evolution.” ―Oprah Magazine “Auster should be recognized as one of the great American prose stylists of our time…. [Auster's] autobiographical works are jewels perfectly cut, luminous little books… It would not be inaccurate to describe the first section, which gives the book its title, as perfect.” ―The New York Times Book Review “Report from the Interior is a fetchingly original, if eclectic, examination of what it feels like to be a young person in a puzzle-world that still hasn't fallen into place. We all felt it as children; Auster has simply revisited it and put it into words.” ―Richmond Times-Dispatch “[Report From the Interior] adds another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of one of our greatest writers.... There are wonderful Austerian twists and ruminations here, making for a satisfying addition to his eclectic canon.” ―Shelf Awareness “[Auster is an] achingly talented essayist.” ―Denver Post “Celebrated author Auster (Sunset Park) observes his own life in this engaging memoir… Auster presents a fascinating take on the memoir. Students and fans will appreciate his original examination of his interior self.” ―Library Journal (Starred) “A high-wire explication of his inner life… Auster's phenomenal literary powers are generated by his equal fluency in matters emotional and cerebral. Here the origins of that sustaining duality are revealed. ” ―Donna Seaman, Booklist “The interplay of memory, identity and the creative imagination informs this portrait of the artist as a young man, a memoir that the novelist's avid readership will find particularly compelling…. Auster has long rendered life as something of a puzzle; here are some significant, illuminating pieces.” ―Kirkus About the Author Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has been awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature, the Prix Médicis Étranger, the Independent Spirit Award, and the Premio Napoli. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.