Paul Auster\'s Book \"The Invention

Paul Auster's book "The Invention of Solitude" puts across his memoir and involves a series of somewhat philosophical remarks with regard to his life experiences. The book is divided into two and the first part deals with his father's unexpected death while the second part is written in a more philosophical note relating to a series of concepts that he considers to be pressing.

In the first part of the book readers are presented with the central character, which is the writer himself, as he receives a phone call informing him that his father had just died. As a result, Auster decides to take his wife and child to his father's house in order to organize the deceased person's belongings. As the writer comes across a series of objects formerly belonging to his father readers are provided with the chance to understand that Auster was particularly concerned about making a stronger bond with his father across the latter's lifetime. In spite of his efforts he never managed to connect with his father on a higher level. As a result, he decides to commence a writing process that would provide him with the opportunity to learn more about his father. Concomitantly, he expects that the work is also going to be appealing to numerous readers, as he wants his father's memory to outlive him.

While it would be normal for a person in Auster's position to relate to going through a dead person's belongings as a rather boring and even morbid process, the writer actually emphasizes this act as being liberating because it make it possible for him to learn more about his father and to be able to philosophize with regard to his connection with his father and with his father's general existence.

It is not until the end of the first part of the book that Auster's emotions overwhelm him and that readers understand how he is not yet able to let go of his father's memory.

The second part of the book, "The Book of Memory," presents a more relaxed narrator -- one that refers to himself using the third person and that is meant to emphasize the complex nature of the concept of memoir. While the first part of the book appeared to put across direct thoughts and to present readers with clear ideas, the second part is actually more difficult to understand upon first reading, as the writer detaches himself from the world from the very first moment when he uses third person to describe his actions and thinking. Many people are actually likely to consider this section of the book as being very confusing and this is largely owed to the fact that Auster introduces experimental ideas and describes himself as a solitary individual who prefers to turn to connecting with his inner thought when he has certain problems.