What We've Been Reading

Ashleigh:

I'd always meant to read Paul Auster, but somehow I'd never gotten around to it before now. So I feel somewhat ill-equipped to write about Invisible,his forthcoming (and fifteenth) novel. The power of the book lies in its structure: it's divided into four sections, each of which tell part of the tale of Adam Walker, who, as a college student in 1967 gets entangled with Born, a creepy, charismatic professor, and his girlfriend, Margot. Decades later, Adam enlists an old friend to help him write his memories of that time. The plot itself feels intentionally melodramatic, but the way the story gets refracted through Adam's shattered perspective makes it a satisfying exploration of the functions of memory and the nature of authorship. With just the right amount of suspense and a surplus of sexual energy, Invisible shows what happens when the character in a coming-of-age story grows up to find he still can't make sense of the defining experiences of his youth.