Invisible

Mar 12, 2012 Max rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is by far the worst book I've read in 2010. I couldnt even finish it; the thought of having to read another 100 pages of drivel led me to thumb through the last pages, only to realize I wasn't missing anything.
How an author that wrote great novels such as The Book of Illusions or Man in The Dark can produce a book that contains no believable characters, no real story and only superficial and empty phrases is a mystery to me. The main character is a spineless loser, whose greatest accomplish...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who liked LOST and therefore don't expect an ending

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list and all Austers previous work

Shelves: 1001-books, bookcrossing-books, read-in-2011

If you like to read a book with a nice story that makes sense and has a moral/point/definitive ending then you will not want to be friends with Paul Auster. Put the book down, that's it...gently..., now off you go and find something else to read.

If on the other hand you can't be dissuaded and carry on reading this the first thing to know is that you should probably disregard the blurb on the back - it only applies to the first 72 pages of the book. Maybe the person who wrote the blurb only got t...more

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May 07, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Ace

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2010 edition)

Shelves: 1001-non-core

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 19, 2011 Ehrrin marked it as to-read

read about this at NPR, and also have been meaning to read something by this author...

FROM NPR:
Invisible
By Paul Auster, paperback, 320 pages, Picador, list price: $15

For another truly unsettling book, try Invisible. The most startling love affair takes place between the protagonist, Adam Walker, and his sister. Before you say "ugh," read the book. In wry reportorial style, Auster tantalizes the reader by describing what appears to be the same set of events from three separate perspectives. Even...more

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Aug 12, 2010 R. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Si comme moi vous lisez pour éprouver le plaisir de tomber amoureux d'un roman, alors lisez Invisible. C'est le meilleur roman que Paul Auster ait jamais écrit.". Ces propos ne sont pas de moi mais de Clancy Martin un journaliste du New York Times. C'est après les avoir lu, au dos du numéro du magasine Lire du mois d'avril, que j'ai décidé de courir acheter ce nouvel opus de Paul Auster. Même si ça me gène profondément d'être à ce point manipulable par la publicité, je ne vais pas m'en plaindre...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks-a-z

Post Lisen Review: Describing this book is really difficult. It is very well written, the prose is engaging, the events described in it are incredible yet it is certainly not for everyone. It blurs lines between facts and fiction, it shifts from different narrators and points of view and sums up one single story but at times doesn't feel completely coherent. Yet that it doesn't feel completely coherent is actually more of a strength than a weakness in this case. The book can be very sexually exp...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Blair rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, past-and-present

This is what fiction should be, in my opinion. Absolutely dazzling, believable yet at times shocking, intellectual without being predictable or dry, compulsively readable but never inane, and above all, completely effortless.

Invisible addresses three seasons in the life of a young man, Adam Walker. In 1967, Adam - a university student and wannabe poet - meets a French professor, Rudolf Born, at a party. What follows is a strange series of events culminating in two main outcomes: the first is Ada...more This is what fiction should be, in my opinion. Absolutely dazzling, believable yet at times shocking, intellectual without being predictable or dry, compulsively readable but never inane, and above all, completely effortless.

Invisible addresses three seasons in the life of a young man, Adam Walker. In 1967, Adam - a university student and wannabe poet - meets a French professor, Rudolf Born, at a party. What follows is a strange series of events culminating in two main outcomes: the first is Adam's brief affair with Born's girlfriend, Margot, and the second is a random act of violence, committed by Born, which Adam is witness to. All of this takes place within the first seventy pages, with the rest of the book devoted to the effect of these events on Adam's life immediately afterwards, and their resonance in later years. All the usual themes of literary fiction are intact - memory, truth, loss, regret - but they aren't rendered in that self-consciously clever style I've grown so sick of over the past year. Predominantly, this is a story about obsession and sex: Adam is obsessed with exacting revenge on Born, as well as sexually obsessed with Margot, and later with another woman (whose identity I won't reveal here as it would give away a major - and very surprising - plot point).

The perspective shifts: Invisible begins as a first-person account told by Adam himself, and at first, I expected the whole story to be told this way - but this being Auster, I should have known better than to expect a straightforward, linear narrative. In Part II, we jump forward to 2007, when Jim Freeman, a former acquaintance who hasn't spoken to Adam in almost forty years, receives a letter from his old friend with a partial manuscript - the first chapter of a possible book, titled 'Spring', which formed the first part of the story. The second chapter, 'Summer', is also told by Adam, but being far more personal and painful for him to recount, it is related in second person, placing the reader at the centre of an intimate and somewhat disturbing tale. In Part III, with Adam's health deteriorating, Jim is compelled to assemble chapter three, 'Fall', from a series of brief notes, and finally, he seeks out some of the others involved in the story to satisfy his own curiosity about both Adam's honesty and the after-effects of the events he has described. I want to say this is where things really get interesting - as the resulting accounts cast doubt on the truth of both Adam's story and Jim's interpretation - but that would make it sound like the book isn't riveting from the very first page, and it really is.

I know Auster is an acquired taste - some of my Goodreads friends have given this book lukewarm reviews, and if you want a nice neat ending where everything's resolved and the truth is made clear, you won't find it here. But I am someone who generally likes the author's work, and this was by far the best of the Auster books I've read so far. I found it enormously compelling, beautifully written (it flows like a dream) and genuinely discomfiting. It lacks the obvious avant-garde tone of (for example) The New York Trilogy, but retains a certain sense of oddness that's enough to give it a sharp edge. Altogether wonderful.(less)

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Dec 28, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: jan-feb-2010

Invisible contains many of the hallmarks of Auster's trade: formal literary devices and stylistic high jinks, psychological depth, elegant prose, and the manipulation of information, voices, and stories. Told against the background of 40 years of history, with shame and colonial guilt ever present, Invisible feels "warmer and more human than the stuff he's famous for" (San Francisco Chronicle) as well as less contrived and more hopeful. Indeed, notes the New York Times Book Review, it's "a love...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Ginny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Visibile mestiere
Intrigante romanzo interamente giocato sull’ambiguità, il dubbio e il mistero. Finendo di leggerlo, non senza una vaga sensazione di sgomento, per prima cosa si è indotti ad interrogarsi sul significato del titolo : che cosa (o chi) è invisibile? Certamente la verità.
Gli eventi, infatti, vengono presentati in una continua oscillazione di punti di vista e di interpretazione, sia per le tecniche narrative adottate (« io » narrante, seconda e terza persona, lettera, trascrizione d...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Maria Pallozzi rated it 4 of 5 stars

E' un racconto scritto divinamente, per questo le quattro stelline. La storia, soprattutto nella seconda parte diventa insolita e a tratti scabrosa, sono pochi che hanno il coraggio di affrontare un tema come l'incesto senza scadere nel moralismo o nel senso di colpa, questo con Invisibile non accade. Ma non è questa la storia di un incesto, e la cosa bizzarra è che la parte migliore del romanzo, ovvero questa relazione tra Adam e Gwyn poteva anche essere omessa e non sarebbe cambiato molto nel...more E' un racconto scritto divinamente, per questo le quattro stelline. La storia, soprattutto nella seconda parte diventa insolita e a tratti scabrosa, sono pochi che hanno il coraggio di affrontare un tema come l'incesto senza scadere nel moralismo o nel senso di colpa, questo con Invisibile non accade. Ma non è questa la storia di un incesto, e la cosa bizzarra è che la parte migliore del romanzo, ovvero questa relazione tra Adam e Gwyn poteva anche essere omessa e non sarebbe cambiato molto nel racconto. Il punto che mi lascia perplessa è proprio questo: mi pare che ci siano tanti presupposti per creare qualcosa di grandissimo, ma svaporano, non sono stati sviluppati a pieno. I personaggi hanno caratteri ben delineati e interessanti, eppure tra loro collaborano poco, le scene sono giustapposte ma non si richiamano, è come se le tre parti del romanzo (che poi è un romanzo nel romanzo, quindi il protagonista narrante non si rivela essere anche il protagonista vero e proprio) fossero totalmente distaccate, pur narrando una storia avvenuta in un solo anno, il 1967.
L'unico collante nel racconto è il rapporto di attrazione e reciproca diffidenza velata da un'amicizia altalenante tra Adam Walker, un ragazzo che sogna di diventare poeta e Rudolf de Born, un uomo misterioso che si impone un contegno che viene a mancargli al primo bicchiere di vino, un carattere tormentato che erompe in crisi di rabbia che terrorizzano chi gli sta attorno. L'espediente per far avvicinare questi due uomini è l'ideazione di una rivista letteraria, e l'interesse verso Adam dell'amante di Rudolf, l'evanescente, bizzarra Margot.
Da qui la storia prende un verso inaspettato, che alla fine, purtroppo, lascia l'amaro in bocca. E' come se non mi avessero spiegato qualcosa, mi sembra di aver perso il mio tempo (anche se è scritto benissimo, quindi non ho perso un bel niente)
Forse sono io ad averlo visto così, probabilmente il libro è perfetto anche per trama e azione, e sono io ad averci visto dei buchi, e paradossalmente sono qui a recensirlo invitandovi a leggerlo, perché nonostante la storia lo stile è interessante e variabile, ci sono colpi di genio ogni due per tre, e si aggiudica le quattro stelline.
:/ E' la mia peggior recensione credo. Perdonate anche me, ma sono davvero confusa.(less)

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Aug 09, 2010 Remi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paul-auster

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Inhaltsangabe:
1967. Adam Walker ist ein Student jüdischer Abstammung mit literarischen Ambitionen (also ein Alter Ego von Paul Auster). Intellektuell, sich selbst ein wenig als Sonderling wahrnehmend, fühlt sich der Narziss in ihm geschmeichelt, als der französische Gastprofessor für Internationale Politik Rudolf Born sich seiner annimmt. Jener Born ist unberechenbar, provozierend in seinen Ansichten, aber auch äußerst charismatisch. Völlig unvermittelt möchte er der Business Angel von Adam für

...more

Inhaltsangabe:
1967. Adam Walker ist ein Student jüdischer Abstammung mit literarischen Ambitionen (also ein Alter Ego von Paul Auster). Intellektuell, sich selbst ein wenig als Sonderling wahrnehmend, fühlt sich der Narziss in ihm geschmeichelt, als der französische Gastprofessor für Internationale Politik Rudolf Born sich seiner annimmt. Jener Born ist unberechenbar, provozierend in seinen Ansichten, aber auch äußerst charismatisch. Völlig unvermittelt möchte er der Business Angel von Adam für ein von ihm zu konzipierendes literarisches Magazin werden und finanzielle Anschubhilfe leisten. Doch ebenso unvermittelt zeigt Born, dieser Mephisto im weißen Anzug, sein anderes Gesicht. Er unterbreitet Adam nicht nur ein unmoralisches Angebot (so lässt er Adam mit dem Gedanken spielen, mit seiner Liebhaberin Margot intim zu werden, was freilich im Laufe der Geschichte auch geschieht), sondern streckt eines Nachts einen jugendlichen Kleinkriminellen mit einem Messerstich nieder, nachdem dieser versuchte, Adam und eben Born auszurauben. Dies wird ein einschneidender Moment im Leben der beiden sein, durch den sie bis zum Ende schicksalhaft miteinander verbunden sein werden. Weitere Themen die in diesem in vier Teile gegliederten Roman erörtert werden sind Inzest, Rache sowie Erinnerungen und deren Glaubwürdigkeit.

Kritik:
Diese Geschichte ist eine unglaubliche Räuberpistole (Mord, Inzest, Rache, sogar Spionage), die allein durch das suggestive und – leider – im negativen Sinne routinierte Erzählen Austers zusammengehalten wird. Auster beherrscht dabei die Klaviatur der literarischen Postmoderne geradezu wie im Lehrbuch, ein Umstand, der freilich nicht als Lob verstanden sein soll. Beispiele gefällig? So werden Perspektiven den gesamten Roman über just in dem Moment gebrochen und in Frage gestellt, dem Leser also permanent der Boden unter den Füßen weggezogen, als die Erzählung mitzureißen vermochte. Ob der literarischen Tradition verpflichtet, kommt der Roman natürlich zunächst als Autobiographie, dann als Briefroman und schließlich als Tagebuchliteratur daher. Wir finden mühseliges, professoral daherkommendes Namedropping obskurer Schriftsteller vor, also gerade keine Schätze an Zeichen des allgemeinen kulturellen Wissensbestandes. Und über allem schweben maue metafiktionale Mätzchen.
Dabei ist es sehr bedauerlich; die großen existenziellen Themen und Spuren kraftvoller Erzählung finden sich im Roman, werden aber letztlich verschenkt, wie z. B. der Inzest, der frühe Tod des kleinen Bruders oder das Erlangen der eigenen Erlösung.
Was für eine negative Poetologie liegt dem Schriftsteller Auster eigentlich in diesem Roman zu Grunde? Denn letztlich ist die hier omnipräsente Glaubwürdigkeitskrise des Erzählers (Nichts kann zu keiner Zeit mit Sicherheit bezeugt werden!), dieses intendierte „den-Leser-wieder-und-wieder-in-Falltüren-tappen-lassen“ ungemein frustrierend. Im Buch wird für eine Bibliothek die Metapher „Castle of Yawns“ benutzt. Das Museum der Postmoderne ist erfreulicherweise in die Jahre gekommen. Für Literaturwissenschaftler der Gegenwart mag dieser Raum zur anstrengend akademischen Masturbation taugen, für Menschen allerdings, die Wahrheiten über die Welt zwischen zwei Buchdeckeln suchen, ist es nicht mehr als ein dekadenter Palast des Gähnens.

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Jul 11, 2010 Mazel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

New York, 1967: un jeune aspirant poète rencontre un énigmatique mécène français et sa sulfureuse maîtresse. Un meurtre scelle bientôt, de New York à Paris, cette communauté de destins placés sous le double signe du désir charnel et de la quête éperdue de justice. Superbe variation sur "l'ère du soupçon", Invisible explore, sur plus de trois décennies, les méandres psychiques de protagonistes immergés dans des relations complexes et tourmentées. Le vertigineux kaléidoscope du roman met en perspe...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, disturbing, fiction-lit

To say I liked this book, or even enjoyed it, would be saying too much. But I thought it was good, which is why I'm giving it four stars. It was good, even though I found nothing and no one within the pages likable or sympathetic. Actually, a lot of it was disturbing. Thinking a book is good while at the same time disliking it is not an experience I've had often, if ever. I have no desire ever to revisit this book.

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Feb 05, 2011 Bart Thanhauser rated it 5 of 5 stars

First time reading Auster. Enjoyed it a lot; started re-reading it as soon as I finished (although I put it down again). Emotional depth, complex characters, ideas of authorship and truth. The second chapter is a tough read. Somewhat disturbing; it made me feel sick. Vague way to put it, but there's a lot of depth to this book. I feel I could re-read it and the book's clever organization (3 narrators tell the story via manuscript, memoir, fiction?), the emotions of the characters, the effortless...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Emma rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Finally read my first Auster. Needless to say it won't be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was beautifully confronting and leaves you to fill in the blanks. Brilliant.

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Feb 07, 2012 Gerald rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Enjoyed this. Another compelling, albeit slightly unsettling, read from Auster.

In particular I loved the middle section. Obviously I won't say much about it (which wouldn't do it credit anyway), but for me it was a beautiful story of first love re-discovered... okay I'll try and explain that again... discovering someone as a lover that you know very well already - love takes on a whole different, beautiful tenor in that, rather than the usual clumsy teenaged grapplings of first love. Very beauti...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Jeffrey May rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have enjoyed Paul Auster’s fiction ever since reading his first novel, The New York Trilogy. (During one span, I read three of his books in a row and I swear, because of it, suffered some not-so-good random events.) But I have never been as enthralled and willingly tricked as I was while reading Invisible. By far, in my mind (which is where Auster’s characters easily insinuate themselves), Invisible is literary magic. It’s hard to imagine a more enjoyably and elegantly disturbing contemporary...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kirstie by: Those who like open endings and the mysteries of humanity.

I found this novel quite unlike many of the other Paul Auster novels I've read in the past. It still has a few of the qualities of experimental fiction, though the main character one can't trust is definitely not as obvious or at the forefront as his other works. There are also a couple of other perspectives that are at play, especially later on in the book, and the oddity of having a protagonist that switches his own perspective from first person to third person in order to conquer the writer's...more
I found this novel quite unlike many of the other Paul Auster novels I've read in the past. It still has a few of the qualities of experimental fiction, though the main character one can't trust is definitely not as obvious or at the forefront as his other works. There are also a couple of other perspectives that are at play, especially later on in the book, and the oddity of having a protagonist that switches his own perspective from first person to third person in order to conquer the writer's block about events in his own life.

Without saying too much, I really like any works of art whether it be films or literature that call me to question and really think about everything I've thus far read that I took for granted and consider it with a different light. This novel recalled the novel I read not too long ago by Julian Barnes entitled The Sense of an Ending...it's actually quite difficult to figure out the truth and one can't fail to consider that each reader might sense a bit of her or his own sense of the story based upon her/his own life experiences and how she/he has come to understand the world...this may have been Paul Auster's own intent (and that of Julian Barnes as well) but I'm not sure.

In any case, it is an interesting read and will probably benefit from a second or third read in the future. It involves a whole host of interesting subjects from civil rights, murder, literature translations all the way to incest and death. Only Auster could really tackle these heavy topics in a way that makes us consider them in this specific way in the narrative of a complex character. The novel is an easy read but don't read it too fast or you may not catch the way Auster commands his language and challenges the reader. It may not be a perfect work but it is well worth reading.

pg.84 "For the sad fact remains: there is far more poetry in the world than justice."

pg. 132-133 "She is the only person you can talk to, the only person who makes you feel alive. And yet, happy as you are to be with her again, you know that you mustn't overburden her with your troubles, that you can't expect her to transform herself into the divine surgeon who will cut open your chest and mend your ailing heart. You must help yourself. If something inside you is broken, you must put it back together with your own two hands."

pg. 216 "Books should be treated with respect, even the ones that make us ill."

pg. 293 "I sometimes confuse my thoughts about the world with the world itself. I'm sorry if I offended you."

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Jan 23, 2013 Paolo Gianoglio rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mio figlio di 10 anni mi chiede di cosa parla questo libro, perchè mi vede attento e appassionato nella lettura. Provo a rispondergli, ma mi rendo conto che non è possibile riassumere il libro se non raccontandolo per filo e per segno. "E' una storia complicata, allora?" prosegue lui. No, per nulla, mi viene da pensare, e mentre lo penso invece mi rendo conto che è semplice e complicata allo stesso tempo. Questo è il motivo per cui adoro Paul Auster: scrive di storie semplici senza farle diventa...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Deniz rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My knowledge of Auster is limited to Sunset Park and this novel, but it seems to me that all his characters speak the same. When reading Invisible, not only I thought all the people in the book had the same tone, but I also felt Adam and Miles of Sunset Park were the same person. Adam resembles Miles (or should I say Miles resembles Adam, because Invisible was written before Sunset Park) in the sense that he's "handsome as a movie star" and very intelligent, bright in sports, a genius in literat...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Paolo Gianoglio rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mio figlio di 10 anni mi chiede di cosa parla questo libro, perchè mi vede attento e appassionato nella lettura. Provo a rispondergli, ma mi rendo conto che non è possibile riassumere il libro se non raccontandolo per filo e per segno. "E' una storia complicata, allora?" prosegue lui. No, per nulla, mi viene da pensare, e mentre lo penso invece mi rendo conto che è semplice e complicata allo stesso tempo. Questo è il motivo per cui adoro Paul Auster: scrive di storie semplici senza farle diventa...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Invisible by Paul Auster--A Review

Paul Auster's novel, Invisible, is a novel within a novel about a man who yields his memoir, not quite finished before his death, to an old friend, a famous writer, who pieces things together in a patchy, start-and-stop, but ultimately satisfying way.

In this Auster book there are some of the strengths that Auster often builds out of his weaknesses. One of the key characters, a Frenchman named Born, is elusive, violent, something of an ubermench, and ultimately a...more Invisible by Paul Auster--A Review

Paul Auster's novel, Invisible, is a novel within a novel about a man who yields his memoir, not quite finished before his death, to an old friend, a famous writer, who pieces things together in a patchy, start-and-stop, but ultimately satisfying way.

In this Auster book there are some of the strengths that Auster often builds out of his weaknesses. One of the key characters, a Frenchman named Born, is elusive, violent, something of an ubermench, and ultimately a bit fuzzy. But without him…no story. He has to get into our protagonist's, Adam Walker's, life and prompt Walker to mount an elaborate attempt to take revenge on Born, but not before he has had (or has he?) a powerful incestuous relationship with his sister.

I say "powerful" because the development of this relationship and its multi-year execution has a certain fatal plausibility about it. Whether it actually happened or not is another story…or a story Invisble eventually tells.

Ancillary characters are similarly hard to pin down--a French lover, a young French girl who falls in love with Walker, the girl's mother, and the novelist to whom Walker bequeaths his incomplete manuscript.

The novel comes in pieces, some keyed to seasons, others built on general recollections, others diary entries by the young French girl when she is a middle-aged woman.

This jerkiness is moderated by Auster's smooth, economical prose and his exceptional talent for dialogue that is clipped and yet telling.

The key premises of the book--Born's monstrousness, the incestuous affair--are necessary to creating the "Auster effect," which is a noirish sort of writing wherein the certain and uncertain overlap.

I'd recommend reading Invisible because it is engaging, vivid, and so smoothly rendered. Lots is "told" not "shown," but this doesn't seem to matter. From time to time Auster's phrasing is hackneyed; close your eyes before turning some of its pages and imagine how the sentence you've been reading will end: more than likely, you'll get it exactly right. Still, this is an ambitious, semi-realistic tale that Auster's fans have come to expect and enjoy.

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Jun 08, 2012 Carlos marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: papel

En 1967, Adam Walker, un joven poeta avido de vida y literatura, estudia en la Universidad de Columbia, se opone a la guerra de Vietnam y es muy apuesto. Una noche, en una fiesta de estudiantes, conoce a una pareja de franceses sofisticados, Rudolf y Margot. Tras varios dias en que ambos ejercen su ambigua seduccion sobre el inocente americano, Rudolf, le ofrece a Adam la direccion de una revista literaria que el financiara. Adam ya sospecha que quiza el profesor sea un hombre peligroso, pero n

...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Sam Quixote rated it 3 of 5 stars

My feelings are conflicted with this book. I didn't hate it. I got through the book in 4 days, not rushing, and found Auster's style of writing still as compelling and easy to read as ever. On the other hand the story, while readable and familiar, just wasn't as compelling as I think Auster must have thought it was and neither was the bad guy nearly as menacing or complex.

Paul Auster is a literary writer and is a highly respected, bestselling writer of post modern stories. Yet despite this he c...more My feelings are conflicted with this book. I didn't hate it. I got through the book in 4 days, not rushing, and found Auster's style of writing still as compelling and easy to read as ever. On the other hand the story, while readable and familiar, just wasn't as compelling as I think Auster must have thought it was and neither was the bad guy nearly as menacing or complex.

Paul Auster is a literary writer and is a highly respected, bestselling writer of post modern stories. Yet despite this he can write a book that reads as fluidly as a thriller mostly because he is a master of pacing and knows precisely how to draw the reader in and when to step up the action. He showcases various styles in the four parts the book is divided in - the first person, the second person, the third person narrative styles are all used and served to highlight how talented the man is as well as to keep the story fresh for the reader (events are rehashed throughout).

Yet the central point of the story - I won't give it away but it comes at the end of Part 1 - just seemed contrived. And if you think about the circumstances, it wasn't that shocking. It serves to show a different side to the bad guy who until then seemed to be a foppish poseur.

The Auster trademarks are here: the bookish hero (trying to be a poet, talking about obscure poets and writers, working in a library), the mysterious benefactor, a dead family member/friend, and a manuscript. Familiar ground then, and yet despite Auster having written similar stories in this fashion many times before I was still compelled to read on.

The story never really goes anywhere though. The bookish hero is haunted by the events at the end of Part 1, Part 2 reveals a sordid past to the hero, Part 3 continues the haunted hero's recounting of the events at the end of Part 1 and a showdown with the bad guy, Part 4 throws a few twists in and ends on a mysterious metaphor.

It's frustrating because I can't go into much detail without ruining the story but the story never really feels as dramatic as it thinks it is, nor as powerful in it's examination of some of the complex relationships in the book. By the end I didn't care and the last 30 pages dragged a bit. The final twist merited a simple shrug from me as I wasn't concerned with any of the characters at that point.

As for the title "Invisible", well, book groups can talk about what it means, I'll hazard a guess and say it might describe the real lives we lead and the lives we wished we'd led - the real life and the invisible life. But again, I didn't think about it too much, this isn't that sort of book.

It's not Auster's best but if you're a big fan of his like me you'll read it and find things to like about it. Overall though it's quite underwhelming and strangely forgettable. Still, it's not his worst and is an entertaining enough read. Glad he left himself out of this one though. Or did he...(less)

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Jan 26, 2011 Laysee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Invisible is a disquieting novel. Adam Walker, a Columbia undergraduate and aspiring poet, met a visiting French professor, Rudolf Born, and his seductive girlfriend at a party. From the start it was difficult to fathom Rudolf’s motives in befriending Adam and offering to help him start and fund a magazine. Then an act of violence plunged Adam into a lifetime of guilt and a hounding need to right the wrong. The story is cleverly told in four parts by three different narrators – Adam himself, Jim...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Few books are better than this one for a comfortable flight on Air France from Paris to Boston. It's about the right length, nicely plot driven, and not so complex nor profound as to be spoiled by the glasses of champagne and red wine passengers still receive free of charge on one of the last remaining decent airlines. The plot is a variation of the mysterious and dangerous stranger story. A young American meets a French professor of political science (and other more mysterious occupations) and...more

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May 12, 2010 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: psycological-thriller, realistic-fiction

The first half of this book bore an uncanny resemblance to "Fade" (Robert Cormier). Though the narrative style it is written in gets annoying and, really, exhausting for the reader at times, I decided I would give this book four stars if it actually Went Somewhere. It didn't. I did not like the ending at all. However, there were lots of stuff I liked about this book. For example, page 109 "On the third day of the visit, sometime around six in the morning, with your mother still asleep in the roo...more

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Apr 05, 2010 Elisabeth Chamontin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Invisible est un livre que l'on a envie de relire. On l'a lu une première fois comme un thriller ou, comme disent les Américains, un page turner. On s'est passionné pour le mystère de ce meurtre qui n'en est peut-être pas un, (en est-il un ?), pour ces amours incestueuses qui n'ont peut-être jamais existé, (ont-elles existé ?), pour l'atmosphère de mélancolie romantique qui imprègne le personnage de Walker, le gentil, et pour le mystère malsain qui flotte autour du personnage de Born, le méchant...more Invisible est un livre que l'on a envie de relire. On l'a lu une première fois comme un thriller ou, comme disent les Américains, un page turner. On s'est passionné pour le mystère de ce meurtre qui n'en est peut-être pas un, (en est-il un ?), pour ces amours incestueuses qui n'ont peut-être jamais existé, (ont-elles existé ?), pour l'atmosphère de mélancolie romantique qui imprègne le personnage de Walker, le gentil, et pour le mystère malsain qui flotte autour du personnage de Born, le méchant.

Et puis on se demande : mais pourquoi ce titre, Invisible ? On voudrait avoir l'original pour vérifier des phrases comme « Born savait où j'étais né » (page 45) qui doivent faire tilt en anglais. On sait, pour être une vieille lectrice d'Auster, que les noms des personnages ne sont jamais choisis au hasard. Alors on relit, on pointe par exemple les occurrences du mot Invisible. La première apparaît dès la page 11, dans la description de Rudolf Born « un visage qui deviendrait invisible dans n'importe quelle foule », la seconde un peu après, page 20 : « cet invisible chaudron d'estime de soi et d'ambition qui frémit et bouillonne au fond de chacun d'entre nous », et surtout la troisième, page 88 : « en parlant de moi-même à la première personne je m'étais étouffé, rendu invisible, je m'étais mis dans l'impossibilité de trouver ce que je cherchais. Il fallait que je me sépare de moi-même », passage dans lequel Auster nous donne en quelque sorte une des clés du livre ou plutôt de son écriture.

On réalise que le personnage d'Adam Walker, jeune poète naïf et pur, est assez inconsistant dans la première partie du roman, écrite à la première personne, et qu'il prend un peu plus d'épaisseur dans la seconde — celle des amours incestueuses — écrite à la deuxième personne. Adam Walker, c'est l'homme qui marche. Reprocher à Paul Auster, comme l'a fait le critique du New Yorker dans cet article, de ne pas avoir donné assez d’étoffe à ce personnage est aussi ridicule que de reprocher à Giacometti de ne pas avoir assez rembourré les siens. Pour le même critique James Wood, la seconde partie est la meilleure des quatre. C'est ne pas avoir compris que les quatre n'en font qu'une, comme les quatre saisons de la vie d'un homme, celle de l'auteur par exemple, « chaque homme étant l'auteur de sa propre vie » (Moon Palace).

Les similitudes entre la biographie d'Adam Walker — au prénom de 4 lettres et au nom de 6 lettres comme ceux de Paul Auster — et celle de l'auteur sont trop nombreuses pour être toutes énumérées (âge, situation par rapport à la guerre du Vietnam, voyage à Paris, traductions...). Il s'agit bien évidemment d'un de ses nombreux avatars, comme l'est aussi Born le malsain (au nom de 4 lettres et au prénom de 6), le Caïn de cet Abel d'Adam Walker sans lequel ce dernier ne pourrait exister, Born le guerrier opposé au poète mais qui ne fait qu'un avec lui en la personne de Bertran de Born, le troubadour évoqué dès la première page du roman, ou encore Born le démon tentateur qui séduit l'ange par l'argent, le sexe et la violence : Milton et Paradise Lost sont longuement évoqués page 99, et on lit page 78 « le clan Walker tout entier avait reçu au berceau des gênes d'ange».

Born n'est « né » que parce Walker meurt en lui donnant naissance, il lui a donné sa substance, son sang (c'est de leucémie que se meurt Walker). Walker, « né stérile » (encore une expression ambiguë qu'on aimerait bien lire en anglais) n'enfante que les personnages de son histoire : « plus je parlais avec eux [Born et Margot:] plus ils me semblaient devenir irréels — comme s'ils avaient été des personnages imaginaires dans une histoire qui se serait passée dans ma tête » nous est-il dit dès la page 17 et, un peu plus loin page 18, Born déclare : « un jour vous vous trouverez en train d'écrire ma biographie. Je le garantis. » Mais après la troisième partie, l'automne à Paris pendant lequel Adam Walker connaît l'échec, et après sa mort quarante ans de désert littéraire plus tard, c'est son amie Cécile Juin (tiens, encore 6 et 4) qui la poursuit, cette biographie, et avec quel terrifiant contenu.

Le roman prend fin sur une scène inattendue et saisissante, mais récurrente chez Auster, liée je crois à un souvenir d'enfance, celle de gens cassant des pierres dans une carrière, et qui me semble elle aussi être une métaphore de l'écriture. Le blanc — Born est toujours habillé de blanc — étant chez Auster un symbole néfaste. Les pierres sont blanches comme la page (blanc et pierre sont des mots très proches en hébreu, le récit de la tour de Babel joue d'ailleurs sur ces mots).
Je cite ici un extrait d'un de ses poèmes, datant de 1970 :
Picks jot the quarry—eroded marks
That could not cipher the message,
The quarrel unleashed its alphabet,
And the stones, girded by abuse,
Have memorized the defeat

Qui a écrit finalement ce roman ? se demande la plupart des critiques. Adam Walker ? Son ami Jim auquel il a confié le manuscrit ? Cécile Juin ? Born lui-même ? Paul Auster s'est appliqué comme chaque fois à se séparer de lui-même. À nous lecteurs de recoller les morceaux pour le rendre un peu moins invisible et déchiffrer, peut-être, le message.(less)

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Mar 30, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

So......
This is the first book I've ever read by Paul Auster, and I must say, I was very impressed by this thrilling, disturbing and kinda weird book. His grasp of the narrative was absolute throughout, no small feat considering the extreme meta-literary gymnastics he puts the reader through. I enjoyed the unfolding mysteries, the multiple (and often (or maybe not) unreliable) narrators, the jumps forwards and backwards in time, and the globe-spanning locales.
I guess I only knocked one star off...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Readers of American author Paul Auster will be familiar with his penchant for metafictional tricks and autobiographical details, and will hence smile knowingly when Invisible opens in 1967 with narrator Adam Walker, a Columbia undergraduate, francophile and aspiring poet.

But this is not to say that Auster is flogging a dead horse with his 15th novel. Indeed, because of its coming-of-age themes, Invisible feels fresh, almost precocious, as if it were written by a brilliant if impatient young auth...more Readers of American author Paul Auster will be familiar with his penchant for metafictional tricks and autobiographical details, and will hence smile knowingly when Invisible opens in 1967 with narrator Adam Walker, a Columbia undergraduate, francophile and aspiring poet.

But this is not to say that Auster is flogging a dead horse with his 15th novel. Indeed, because of its coming-of-age themes, Invisible feels fresh, almost precocious, as if it were written by a brilliant if impatient young author – brilliant for its dazzling lyricism and narrative sleights-of-hand, impatient because, alas, as with many of Auster’s works, the writer has provided many storylines without any actual plot.

The novel is divided into quarters. In the first part, Adam meets Rudolf Born, a Swiss-French visiting professor teaching “the disasters of French colonialism”. Thus begins a somewhat perverted father-son relationship, with Born offering his live-in girlfriend to Adam to sleep with, and ends with a dark deed that shakes Adam to the core.

It is this deed that ends up shaping Adam’s life, as we find out in the next part, where the narrative jumps 40 years into the future to one James Freeman, a renowned author who is contacted by his former schoolmate, a leukaemia-stricken Adam, for advice on how to write an autobiographical book (the excerpt he encloses is the first part we have just read).

Encouraged by his friend, Adam proceeds to send him the second part, also autobiographical, a second-person narrative tour de force about the summer after he met Born, which Adam spent with his sister in New York. This is Auster at his best: Take this description of how Adam and his sister mourn the death of their younger brother every year by imagining what he would be like today: “For ten years now, he has been living this shadow existence inside you, a phantom being who has grown up in another dimension, invisible yet breathing...”

But this is Auster, and now doubts begin to creep in as to how true any of Adam’s “autobiography” is anyway. The third and fourth parts attempt to slap on some kind of closure with more is-it-true-or-isn’t-it games, before bringing the novel to an abrupt end.

Each part of this novel would work as a novella on its own, but the attempt to link them lacks a big payoff. Though this sounds disappointing, maybe there are authors you read for the story, and then there are those you read for the lyricism, the sheer pleasure of the prose excusing the lack of plot.
(less)

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