Call number
816.54 AUST
Collection
Publication
Viking (2013), Edition: First Edition, 256 pages
Description
Correspondence between two authors over three years, offering a portrait of their lives and touching on a variety of subjects ranging from sports to fatherhood, literature to film, philosophy to politics, and from the financial crisis to art, death, eroticism, marriage, friendship, and love.
User reviews
LibraryThing member aegossman
This book ended too soon. The second they do another I am all over it
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Without having read any letters by either Paul Auster or J.M. Coetzee, it is hard to decide how "natural" this collection of correspondence is. Any two writers can of course be friends, and will then, likely correspond. Still, the start of this correspondence per explicit suggestion to "begin
The somewhat artificial basis of the correspondence remains in the background, and resonates with the decision to publish such a small, immature collection within five years of its commencement: Here and now. Letters 2008-2011.
Auster and Coetzee do not have much in common, and do not have much to tell each other. They banter a bit about writing, mentioning books, which they have often "seen" in film adaptations. Their closest proximity is in the discussion of major literature, which, inevitably, both of them have read: Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and to a lesser extent, Philip Roth.
There is quite a lot of talk about politics, esp. Israel, and sports. All rather banal.
Auster is revealed as not using email or a mobile phone, and there is some further discussion about their attachment to type writers, and the significance of modern communication technology to prose fiction.
Fortunately, both authors are gifted writers, and the letters read easily. Therefore, despite its limited interest, reading Here and now. Letters 2008-2011 does not set the reader back much time, and could be read at a glance in a few hours.
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exchanging letters on a regular basis" does smack a bit of commercial interest.The somewhat artificial basis of the correspondence remains in the background, and resonates with the decision to publish such a small, immature collection within five years of its commencement: Here and now. Letters 2008-2011.
Auster and Coetzee do not have much in common, and do not have much to tell each other. They banter a bit about writing, mentioning books, which they have often "seen" in film adaptations. Their closest proximity is in the discussion of major literature, which, inevitably, both of them have read: Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and to a lesser extent, Philip Roth.
There is quite a lot of talk about politics, esp. Israel, and sports. All rather banal.
Auster is revealed as not using email or a mobile phone, and there is some further discussion about their attachment to type writers, and the significance of modern communication technology to prose fiction.
Fortunately, both authors are gifted writers, and the letters read easily. Therefore, despite its limited interest, reading Here and now. Letters 2008-2011 does not set the reader back much time, and could be read at a glance in a few hours.
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LibraryThing member k6gst
I’ve read maybe half of Coetzee, but only one Paul Auster book besides this one.
I believe it was in this collection of correspondence that I found one of my favorite lines, related by Auster, about the business of living, having life happen to you, getting old, watching friends and family die,
I believe it was in this collection of correspondence that I found one of my favorite lines, related by Auster, about the business of living, having life happen to you, getting old, watching friends and family die,
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and then dying yourself: “As my friend George Oppen once said to me about getting old: what a strange thing to happen to a little boy.” Show Less
LibraryThing member Pauntley
Occasional insights, mild pleasures. Nothing here to pierce armour in this chatty exchange between two polished performers. Both were feeling their age; Auster was 61 and Coetzee 68 when their correspondence began. They are grumpy about the way the world has changed as the years have passed.
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Writing in 2010, Coetzee lamented the 'mean vision' that has come to dominate the practice of politics and signs off, 'Yours in dark times'. Auster responds with an extended reflection on the 'great carnival of stupidity that has become our public life'. Fortunately for the reader, their doom gives way to nostalgia, as they exchange memories of the portable typewriter and the landline telephone. Auster still types his correspondence on an Olivetti Lettera 22. (to be continued) Show Less
Pages
256
ISBN
0670026662 / 9780670026661