- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (5 Nov 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571249310
- ISBN-13: 978-0571249312
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 197,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Invisible
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
The coming-of-age story dazzlingly reinvented by one of America's greatest novelists, in his most passionate and surprising book to date.
Product Description
Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Invisible opens in New York City in the spring of 1967 when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and studen at Columbia University meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born, and his silent and seductive girlfriend Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life.
Three different narrators tell the story, as it travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from New York to Paris and to a remote Caribbean island in a story of unbridled sexual hunger and a relentless quest for justice.
With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us to the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, authorship and identity to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read everything he's ever written, and always looked forward to a new book release, I must admit I was slightly anxious about Invisible. The last book, Man in the Dark, was slight by comparison with epics like The New York Trilogy and The Music of Chance, and previous novel The Brooklyn Follies was ok, but fell way short of Auster's previous high standards. Writer's block, perhaps?
Invisible represents a return to form, of sorts. The narrative is looser than some previous works although Auster fans will spot the usual deft touches with dialogue. I was disappointed by the last 20 pages but in true Auster fashion little is 'explained' in the true sense of the word. The sexual references were unexpected, and frequent. This is a more earthy Auster than fans will be used to.
Overall, good but not great. But this is Paul Auster and it seems his fans may have to get used to a mixed bag of output these days.
Invisible represents a return to form, of sorts. The narrative is looser than some previous works although Auster fans will spot the usual deft touches with dialogue. I was disappointed by the last 20 pages but in true Auster fashion little is 'explained' in the true sense of the word. The sexual references were unexpected, and frequent. This is a more earthy Auster than fans will be used to.
Overall, good but not great. But this is Paul Auster and it seems his fans may have to get used to a mixed bag of output these days.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Its hard to say too much about this book without without diluting the experience for anyone else reading it this for themselves, so I'll keep it brief. This is a story of Adam Walker, notionally his biography focusing on a life changing year at college and his meeting with a man called Born. On the surface, it is a story of how brief moments, the chance to make a decision to do one thing or the other, defines a life.
Auster writes wonderfully; he offers a masterclass in defining a narrative voice. He manages to have Walker write his autobiography in first, second and third person till eventially the voice in not Walker's at all. An amazing device that pulls the reader into the heart of Walker's story then pushes them out to give a suitable perspective on the whole story, and makes the disturbing passages of this book all the more uncomfortable for it.
I had never read Auster before this, but admit I rushed out almost immediately to buy whatever else I could find by him after this. This is a very, very good book.
Auster writes wonderfully; he offers a masterclass in defining a narrative voice. He manages to have Walker write his autobiography in first, second and third person till eventially the voice in not Walker's at all. An amazing device that pulls the reader into the heart of Walker's story then pushes them out to give a suitable perspective on the whole story, and makes the disturbing passages of this book all the more uncomfortable for it.
I had never read Auster before this, but admit I rushed out almost immediately to buy whatever else I could find by him after this. This is a very, very good book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am a bit of a Paul Auster fan and have been working my way through his novels with an insatiable hunger. Ever since 'The New York Trilogy' I have been searching for that same genius in his writing. I did find greatness in some others i.e.: 'The Music of Chance', 'Travels in the Scriptorium' and 'Oracle Night'. But nothing has quite matched the brillince of the Trilogy.
'Invisible' however, disappointed me quite a lot. As a big Auster fan, it was particularly irritating to feel so let down with this novel. Although it had some of the trademarks of an Auster, which have become a bit too expected (i.e.: a young male who is in the midst of education, a beautiful cold older woman who the young male is attracted to, a violent and impulsive older gentleman, a three-way relationship, a writer within the story etc) - I was still eager to delve into the novel with an open mind.
Sadly, it was rather tedious. The plot was not as exciting as it should have been, the dialogue was often boring and felt a bit insincere, the characters were not always believable and there was a strange incest episode which was brushed away by the end of the novel as imaginary. Seemed a bit strange to go into that much detail just to dismiss it as fiction...
I wanted to like this book but sadly I didn't. I think Auster needs to take a new perspective on his characters - try to not make the main character a writer in his books for a change... But I shall persist. 'The Invention of Solitude' and 'Moon Palace' next. Still a man with much talent so I read on...
'Invisible' however, disappointed me quite a lot. As a big Auster fan, it was particularly irritating to feel so let down with this novel. Although it had some of the trademarks of an Auster, which have become a bit too expected (i.e.: a young male who is in the midst of education, a beautiful cold older woman who the young male is attracted to, a violent and impulsive older gentleman, a three-way relationship, a writer within the story etc) - I was still eager to delve into the novel with an open mind.
Sadly, it was rather tedious. The plot was not as exciting as it should have been, the dialogue was often boring and felt a bit insincere, the characters were not always believable and there was a strange incest episode which was brushed away by the end of the novel as imaginary. Seemed a bit strange to go into that much detail just to dismiss it as fiction...
I wanted to like this book but sadly I didn't. I think Auster needs to take a new perspective on his characters - try to not make the main character a writer in his books for a change... But I shall persist. 'The Invention of Solitude' and 'Moon Palace' next. Still a man with much talent so I read on...
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Superb return to metaphysical form
We're back in familiar Auster territory, in fact it could be argued that he only ever really writes about one thing, the illusory layers of reality and the process of fiction as a... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Victor Ward
Gripping, puzzling, thoughtful
Like that other great American novelist Philip Roth, Paul Auster suffers at the hands of critics because he is so prolific. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. H. Bretts
Beret sold separately
Invisible, the story of a college student transgressing the boundaries of morality in 1960s Paris and New York, is built upon shifting foundations of postmodernism that give the... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Nicola
Has Auster employed junior college students to do his writing for him?
I'll keep this short (shame Auster didn't!);
I've read mopst of Auster's novels at this point, and for the most part I've been entirely impressed - Auster's writing can... Read more
I've read mopst of Auster's novels at this point, and for the most part I've been entirely impressed - Auster's writing can... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Stephen Porter
Disturbing but riveting and an all round fantastic read!
This is the first Paul Auster book I have read and I only did so because it was picked for our book club. Read more
Published 20 months ago by maryscot0509
He's still got it!
At least three of my all time favourite books have been written by Paul Auster, this isn't one of them but it still had me enthralled. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Milton Fontaine
risible invisible
Towards the end of Auster's novel, there's a line, "..the writing is atrocious, banal to the point of absurdity. Read more
Published 21 months ago by chris wilson
Clever, Challenging, Compromised
I'm a huge fan of Auster's meta-fiction, so picked this up with relish. As ever, he plays with the nature of narrative, the blurring between fact and fiction, and the identity of... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Parthurbook
INVISIBLE
THE FRONT COVER SAYS "A TANTALISING PAGE TURNER". I FOUND THIS, UNLIKE SOME OTHER OF HIS WORK, TO BE "A TEDIOUS PAGE SKIPPER " ALL VEG, AND NO MEAT. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Oliver Parish
Here we go again
Another maddeningly readable but ultimately disappointing novel from Paul Auster. The plot is compelling enough to keep you reading, but fizzles out unsatisfyingly at the end. Read more
Published 22 months ago by hotpoint
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
