“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising bo... read full description
reviews
Dec 29, 2011
Shovelmonkey1
rated it: 
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 blur More...
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 blur More...
3 comments
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(12 people liked it)
May 10, 2011
K.D.
rated it:
New York, 1967 to 1990. When Adam Walker was 16 years old, he and his 15-year old sister, Gwyn had a one-night experiment of doing sexual acts sans intercourse to appease their curiosity on sex. Two years after, to be exact in 1967, Adam was in a party and while standing in a corner, met Rudolf Born a French professor who led a double or triple life and his girlfriend, Margot. After only a few days, Adam began sleeping with Margot.
This is my second book by Paul Auster and, like his T More...
This is my second book by Paul Auster and, like his T More...
2 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Jun 19, 2011
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 More...
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 More...
Aug 12, 2010
R.
rated it: 
"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'e
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(2 people liked it)
Mar 25, 2011
Adam
rated it:
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
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 30, 2012
Blair
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
4 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Dec 28, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
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'
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Jan 29, 2012
Maria
rated it:
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
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(1 person liked it)
Apr 08, 2011
Remi
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
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(1 person liked it)
Jul 11, 2010
Mazel
rated it:
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
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 01, 2012
Heather
rated it:
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
rated it:
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
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 26, 2012
Ariadna73
rated it:
Invisible is the second novel I read from this formidable author. I am starting to become a fan of this man. He knows how to gain my attention as a reader, and how to prepare me to what I am about to experience by reading his book. This novel is the story of one year in the life of a man back in 1967. He lived an adventure involving good food, good sex, and murder. Forty years later, when he is dying, he decides to write about that experience and sends the manuscript to his friend (a very succes
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Aug 06, 2011
Sam
rated it:
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 despit More...
Paul Auster is a literary writer and is a highly respected, bestselling writer of post modern stories. Yet despit More...
Mar 06, 2011
Holger
rated it:
"Unsichtbar" von Paul Auster ist ein vielschichtiger Roman, der die Leserin bzw. den Leser an der Nase herumführt und bis zum Ende die Frage nach der "wirklichen" Geschichte nicht löst. Es bleiben Andeutungen und Erzählungen, aus denen sich unterschiedliche Abläufe der Schilderung ergeben können. Spannend ist der Aufbau der Geschichte, die das einschneidende Jahr (1967) eines jungen Mannes aus der Retrospektive erzählt (Mord, Liebe, Sex, Freundschaft). Sie setzt sich aus den
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 26, 2011
Laysee
rated it: 
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, Ji
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Dec 12, 2010
Stephen
rated it:
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) a
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Oct 25, 2010
Charlotte
rated it:
Yet again, Paul Auster does not disappoint. Invisible is concerned with the memoirs of Adam Walker, beginning with his student days 1967. After meeting a glamorous yet seedy bohemian couple his life starts moving in unexpected directions. (Albeit in rather exciting cities … Paris and New York anyone?) A confession: at first I was worried Paul Auster had written a story, a straightforward story! But for dedicated Auster fans, don’t panic - although this is probably one of his more mainstream nove
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Aug 18, 2010
Max
rated it: 
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 acco More...
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 acco More...
May 12, 2010
Michelle
rated it:
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 as
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(1 person liked it)
Apr 05, 2010
Elisabeth
rated it:
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
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(2 people liked it)
Mar 30, 2010
Matt
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 10, 2010
Stephanie
rated it:
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 impatien More...
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 impatien More...
Jan 31, 2010
Lars
rated it:
I hesitated in rating this one, because it was so unsettling. Then, being unsettled can be valuable. It is also Auster, mannered and clever, fey and twee, all at once, with an idiosyncratic voice so ubiquitous that it's hard differentiating between the characters behind the multiple first-person narratives in 'Invisible.' But like the 'The New York Trilogy,' Auster somehow pulls the rabbit out of the hat. Artifice becomes effective trope; the trick turns into truth.
'Invisible' is More...
'Invisible' is More...
7 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 12, 2010
Gladia
rated it:
Spring:
New York: Walker meets Born at a party and the professor, just a few days later and for no good reason, offers to give money to the young student to make a literary magazine. Their professional partnership soon dies when Born stabs to death a boy who's trying to rob him and Walker.
The story is weak since the very beginning and lacks of imagination to explain most of the events. Walker is depicted as a reasonable character but Born, an opinionated on everything French professor More...
New York: Walker meets Born at a party and the professor, just a few days later and for no good reason, offers to give money to the young student to make a literary magazine. Their professional partnership soon dies when Born stabs to death a boy who's trying to rob him and Walker.
The story is weak since the very beginning and lacks of imagination to explain most of the events. Walker is depicted as a reasonable character but Born, an opinionated on everything French professor More...
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(6 people liked it)
Nov 29, 2009
Jim
rated it:
One rainy spring night back in 1987, I wandered into Guild Bookstore (Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, extinct) and was beguiled by a sexy set of hardbacks – The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster – an author I'd never heard of. Guild was known more for its selection of esoteric lectures by Noam Chomksy than for modernist fiction; this set, published by Sun & Moon Press, looked like something I'd expect to find at the Art Institute. The books had a cool stylish look (including the author photo); the prose
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(5 people liked it)
Nov 19, 2009
Nathan
rated it:
It’s been a prolific decade for my favourite author, Paul Auster –he has just published his sixth novel of the noughties. As prolific as he’s been, he’s also published some of his weakest works –I don’t care for the crowd-pleasing Brooklyn Follies nor Travels in the Scriptorium, although at least they’re better than Timbuktu, his late nineties novel told through the eyes of a dog. I rate his new novel, Invisible, the second best of the six of the decade, after The Book of Illusions. It is the mo
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Nov 16, 2009
Tony
rated it:
Auster, Paul. INVISIBLE. (2009). *****. Auster has managed to come out with yet another book that you can’t put down because you can’t imagine what’s likely to come on the next page. Adam Walker begins to tell the story of his adventures in New York City during the year 1967. He is twenty years old and an aspiring student at Columbia. He meets a Frenchman, Rudolf Born, an instructor of Political Science at the University, and his girlfriend, Margot. Soon, Born draws Adam into a relations
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Nov 10, 2009
Gail
rated it:
For this reader Paul Auster is one of the most brilliant writers working today. He is a total original who pens intriguing, beguiling prose of great depth and intensity. There are some books that one may scan and pretty much capture the author's narrative. Not so with Auster, his work requires concentration, thoughtfulness as one plumbs his intentions. His novels are complex yet totally satisfying. Auster's narrative voice is so rich, so distinctive that you can almost hear it. Such is the case
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Aug 22, 2010
Steve
rated it:
Paul Auster is my favorite author. I briefly flirted with Philip Roth, because his output is so much more, and he had a very intense phase with three excellent novels, but Auster has really been coming on strong since he's gotten away from making movies. He did that clunker book about a dog, and his poems are interesting but not as good as his novels. I've read his non-fiction and memoir, which is OK. I'd say read all his novels except the one about the dog. Mr. Vertigo wasn't great, though
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