The Book of Illusions: Amazon.de: Paul Auster: Englische Bücher

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Vermont professor David Zimmer is a broken man. The protagonist of Paul Auster's 10th novel, The Book of Illusions, hits a period in which life seemed to be working aggressively against him. After his wife and sons are killed in an airplane crash, Zimmer becomes an alcoholic recluse, fond of emptying his bottle of sleeping pills into his palm, contemplating his next move. But one night, while watching a television documentary, Zimmer's attention is caught by the silent-film comedian Hector Mann, who had disappeared without a trace in 1929 and who was considered long-dead. Soon, Zimmer begins work on a book about Mann's newly discovered films (copies of which had been sent, anonymously, to film archives around the world). The spirit of Hector Mann keeps David Zimmer alive for a year. When a letter arrives from someone claiming to be Hector Mann's wife, announcing that Mann had read Zimmer's book and would like to meet him, it is as if fate has tossed Zimmer from one hand to the other: from grief and loss to desire and confusion.

Although film images are technically "illusions," this deft and layered novel is not so much about conscious illusion or trickery as about the traces we leave behind us: words, images, memories. Children are one obvious trace, but in this book, they are not allowed to carry their parents forward. They die early: Hector Mann losing his 3-year-old son to a bee sting just as David Zimmer has lost his two sons in the crash. The second half of The Book of Illusions is given over to a love affair, and to Zimmer's attempt to save something of Hector Mann, and of the others he has loved. In the end, what really survives of us on earth--what flickering immortality we are permitted--is left to the reader to surmise. --Regina Marler -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Booklist

Auster's signature fascination with the capriciousness of fate and adept use of the classic story-within-the-story motif are writ larger than ever in his brilliant, sage, and suspenseful tenth novel. Here, too, is Auster's passion for film (he has three to his credit), the soulfulness of Timbuktu (1999) and I Thought My Father Was God [BKL S 15 01] (a remarkable collection of evocative real-life stories), and an entwining of the strange and the erotic, not unlike Howard Norman's Haunting of L [BKL F 15 02]. It all begins when a Vermont English professor, paralyzed with grief over the loss of his wife and young sons in a plane crash, sees a clip of silent film star and director Hector Mann's witty shtick on television and laughs for the first time in months. David embarks on an intense study of Mann's nearly forgotten work, an arduous quest given the fact that Mann disappeared at the peak of his powers, then ends up embroiled in Mann's complicated and tragic secret life after a woman with a prominent birthmark and a gun takes him to New Mexico. Auster limns Mann's many-layered cinematic and earthly worlds in mesmerizing and voluptuous detail within an artful, poignantly metaphysical, and delectably Hitchcockian tale of mayhem, murder, and myriad illusions within illusions. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Zu konventionell 18. M�rz 2005

Von Michael Dienstbier TOP 500 REZENSENT

Format:Taschenbuch

Auster-Fans werden auch dieses Buch lieben, obwohl es bei weitem nicht den Zauber und die Klasse von der "New York Trilogy" hat.
Erzählt wird die Geschichte von David Zimmer, der nach dem tragischen Tod seiner Familie beginnt eine Biographie über den 1927 spurlos verschwundenen Schauspieler Hector Mann zu schreiben. Nach Veröffentlichung des Buches erhält er eine Einladung, Mann persönlich zu treffen. Nach und nach erschließt sich das Rätsel seines Lebens und plötzlichen Verschwindens.

Auch wenn der Roman toll geschrieben und leidlich spannend ist, bleibt er doch, für Auster Maßstäbe, erstaunlich konventionell und vorhersehbar. Wurder der Leser in der "New York Trilogy" noch ständig durch das Spiel der Identitäten verwirrt und in die Irre geführt, bleibt hier alles ziemlich durchschaubar.

Die Stärken von "Book of Illusions" liegen in der Darstellung von Davids Trauer nach dem Tod seiner Familie. Auster veranschaulicht seinen Schock, seine innere Taubheit und seinen Selbstzertörungstrieb so deutlich wie es mit dem Medium der Literatur eben möglich ist. Höhepunkt des Romans ist aber Hector Manns Film "The Inner Life of Martin Frost". Dies ist der einzige Abschnitt, wo Auster an die Qualität der "New York Trilogy" anknüpfen kann.

Fazit: ein nur durschnittlicher Auster, aber immer noch besser als das meiste, was an neueren Sachen auf dem Buchmarkt zu finden ist.

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Chance at its best! 23. August 2002

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Fortunately Auster has taken up his theme again: chance and the mysterious way in which it manipulates our lives. Chance is destiny - in this book it's Hector Mann's destiny, a man who gets involved in a tragedy by chance, loses his bride and gets the chance to change his identity in order to survive. But his luck is only illusionary, only a moment of happiness which constantly changes. Auster's heroes are always on the run, looking for the essential truth in their lives and in themselves and for plans - but in vain. Auster's "Book of Illusions" represents a collection of stories, bizarre, wild and dramatic, which are intertwined by the "music of chance" and which leave us desillusioned by illusions.

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Literature at its best 18. Dezember 2008

Von Kristin Hogk

This was my first book by Paul Auster, and it won me all the love a reader can have for an author and his storytelling. To me, everything in this book fits: The length is perfect, the story is perfect, also Auster's "method" of storytelling is simply perfect. The plot is impressively complex - just as the main characters are - but it's never too much to grasp, since Auster dissolves it all in a way that highly satisfied me as a reader. While reading, again and again I recognized Auster's great talent to interweave his strings in a logical and yet exciting way. Out comes a coherent, a "round" piece of literature that leaves nothing to doubt. The end is not what you'd expect, and still, it's the best one to wish for. Kristin Hogk, certified translator & editor