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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In this aptly titled memoir Paul Auster takes a hacksaw to the romanticised notion of the Starving Artist. Deciding he needs experience more than schooling ("I didn't want to talk about books anymore, I wanted to write them"), the would-be writer heads off to seek his fortune...as an airconditioner installer, a utilityman on the Esso Florence, and a writer of educational filmstrip copy (to name only a few). In doing so, he strips bare the glamour of the writing life to reveal the grainy, sad truth of an unknown scribe trying to make ends meet. And as further evidence against the Hollywood version he includes early writings and money-making attempts in a fascinating set of appendices.
But rather than let this marginal existence get him down, Auster fuels his writing with the folks he meets along the way. For instance, Casey and Teddy, a hilarious vaudevillian duo whom he encounters while groundskeeper at the Commodore Hotel, bear a striking resemblance to the two main characters in Auster's early play, Laurel and Hardy Go to Heaven (included in Appendix 1). And no memoir would be complete without a few brushes with the rich and famous; enter Jerzy Kosinski (Auster edited Cockpit), as well as brief encounters with John Lennon and the home of Mark Rothko.
Of all the schemes Auster cooks up to stay afloat, none is more doomed (nor more endearing) than Action Baseball (Appendix 2), a card game he invents and endeavours to sell to various toy companies. Of course, his final scheme--to write and publish a detective novel (Appendix 3)--is the reason you're reading this now. --Martha Silano
Product Description
One of the most original and audacious autobiographies ever written by a writer, Hand to Mouth tells the story of the young Paul Auster's struggle to stay afloat. By turns poignant and comic, Auster's memoir is essentially a book about money - and what it means not to have it. From one odd job to the next, from one failed scheme to another, Auster investigates his own stubborn compulsion to make art and, in the process, treats us to a series of remarkable adventures and unforgettable encounters. The book ends with three of the longest footnotes in literary history: a card game, a baseball thriller, and three short plays.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Take heart if you've ever wanted to become a writer, because this is jusrt about the best story about becoming an author your likely to read. It seems we're all the same. Brilliant if you like Paul Auster, brilliant if you don't - a win/win. Also note the longest footnote in history...
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Auster's genius can not be underestimated and having read virtually all his other novels the desire to know the man behind the incredible plots and prose of The New York Trilogy, Mr.Vertigo and Moon Palace to name a few must be met with this incredible autobiography. The novel is essentially about money and not having it, and about to embark on a life of studying Art myself I connected with the sensation of poverty that Auster experienced throughout his early adulthood. His life reads like of one of his novels, the constant twisting of his path and fate's ironic sense of humour led the young Auster to meet some incredible people during his life and to experience the extraordinary. Auster revealed as the human and not the author is truely one of my heroes now. The novel has the three longest footnotes in literary history, with two plays, that are reminscent of other Auster stories and a detective thriller that fully justifies Auster role as witness to 20th Century urban American culture. This book is best for Paul Auster fans and could get anyone hooked on this true contemporary American artist.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The tale that so many of Auster's works tell, is in reply to a simple question, what makes one write? In this stunning autobiography Auster charts the tough trek he took wandering in a wilderness of self-imposed poverty, and relentless indifference. Auster's determination that he would be, nay, that he was a writer, is gripping, touching and typically full of wonder. If you are thinking of buying a writer's handbook, buy this instead. Totally inspired and inspiring.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hand to mouth ; chronical of success
This book delivers two distinct parts.Firstly the account by Paul Auster of his early struggles as a writer (among other things) which this is followed by three exam ples of his... Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2009 by O'Cinneide
A Picture of Auster's Early Struggles as a Writer
Hand to Mouth includes an autobiography, two short plays and a private-eye novel. The mix of these different forms of writing paints a rich picture of Auster's struggle to... Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2005
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