Auster’s point of view is different: he recognizes his connection to a family, a tradition, a culture, but he also realizes that this is a highly problematic link. In short, to paraphrase the famous verse of Rene Char, the legacy is ambiguous: the will is missing. Since nothing has a priori meaning—this, the very curse of modernity—the self, like solitude and tradition, must literally be invented and re-created.
