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The Book of Illusions

By Paul Auster

(113)

| Paperback | 9780571212187

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Book Description

Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost film by silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer’s inContinue

Critics

Dead men do tell tales

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster Faber and Faber £16.99, pp321 A professor whose entire family has died in a plane crash, leaving him so ravaged by grief that he becomes like a zombie stumbling through a living death; a silent movie star of the T ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

Sleight of hand

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster 321pp, Faber, £16.99 The title of Paul Auster's new book makes it sound less like a novel than a compendium of magic tricks - which, in a way, is what a novel amounts to. The Book of Illusions bristles with switch ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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5 Reviews

Quite good from the very begining

Check my blog out: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-of-ill…
10-10-2011: Found it a little bit more tragic that I could stand. This guy is somehow always surrounded by people who die or are about to die. I would have liked to read something less sad from this ve ... (continue)

Check my blog out: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-of-ill…
10-10-2011: Found it a little bit more tragic that I could stand. This guy is somehow always surrounded by people who die or are about to die. I would have liked to read something less sad from this very entertaining author.
09-18-2011: As always, this author has trapped me since the very first word. I'll see how this beautifol story evolves, but I know I'll not feel defrauded.

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ariadna73 said on Sep 19, 2011 | Add your feedback

Redemption is an Illusion

The book of Redemption has turned out to be (yet another) book of desolation
After numerous attempt, I am on the fringe of declaring defeat and confess that it wasn't able for me to come up with a neat review about Paul Auster's The book of Illusion. The fashion in which the book was ended was sim ... (continue)

The book of Redemption has turned out to be (yet another) book of desolation
After numerous attempt, I am on the fringe of declaring defeat and confess that it wasn't able for me to come up with a neat review about Paul Auster's The book of Illusion. The fashion in which the book was ended was simply too much for me to bear. To be frank, I am surprised myself at the extent to which the book had grasped me. That was totally beyond expectation. I guess the characters of David Zimmer and Hector Mann were just too convincing and compelling. TO that end I guess Auster should be credited for such an accomplishment.
Rereading the part about Hector Mann (Hermann Loesser by then) and Sylvia Meers' encounter, it suddenly dawn upon me that it was only for the way the whole story ends, given how macabre the whole book is.
I have written heaps of fragmented points and paragraphs during my no less than four readings of the book (and of course these aren't out-to-out beginning to end readings, save the firs two times) but I have yet to organize those messy lines into a coherent, organized piece.
Given the many, and I mean many, elements in the book that struck me, that was only one central thought about it that I could never put it out of my mind. That much was beyond a doubt. That the 'Illusion' pertains to in the title of the book was none other than the delusional sense of salvation. That Redemption is but an Illusion. Hence the title for this little piece.
(It struck me that the piece of post reading comment (I hesitate to call it a review) should be as precise and concise as possible, and thus I literally truncated the large amount of longwinded afterthoughts and reduced them to a tenth in length. Perhaps I would include those fragments elsewhere.)
better a short little piece of presentable
Of course Redemption is an illusion. It takes only a fool to expect light awaits at the end of the tunnel for the likes of David Zimmer and Hector Mann
With that I made peace with the book.

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Paul Yeung said on Jul 16, 2010 | Add your feedback

One of his greatest of all times.
A must read

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Daniel Bistuer said on Jan 26, 2010 | Add your feedback

thanks to my amore for making me meet Paul Auster

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Vyrama said on Apr 29, 2009 | Add your feedback

This book was a bit of a curate's egg. I thought the first 80 or 90 pages, focussing on the main character, were brilliant. Then the book followed the life of the man he had written a biography of, and this part was less engaging, plus I personally didn't like a section which included graphic sexu ... (continue)

This book was a bit of a curate's egg. I thought the first 80 or 90 pages, focussing on the main character, were brilliant. Then the book followed the life of the man he had written a biography of, and this part was less engaging, plus I personally didn't like a section which included graphic sexual details. Finally, the ending didn't ring true to me; it seemed somewhat contrived.

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Andy Neads said on Mar 5, 2008 | Add your feedback