Collected Poems
By Paul Auster
2004
First Published
3.60
Average Rating
213
Number of Pages
Taut, densely lyrical, and everywhere informed by a powerful and subtle music, this collection begins with the compact fragments of Spokes and Unearth (both written when Auster was in his early twenties), continues on through the more ample meditations of "Wall Writing," "Disappearances," "Effigies," "Fragments From the Cold," "Facing the Music" and "White Spaces," then moves further back in time to include Auster's revealing translations of many of the French poets who influenced his own writing—including Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault, Robert Desnos, and Rene Char—as well as the provocative and previously unpublished "Notes From a Composition Book" (1967). An introduction by Normal Finkelstein connects the biographical elements to a consideration of the work and takes in Auster's early literary and philosophical influences. Penetrating, lyric, and tempered with the same brooding intelligence that informs The New York Trilogy, these poems offer a unique window into postmodern consciousness.
Avg Rating
3.60
Number of Ratings
324
5 STARS
22%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
9%
1 STARS
5%
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Author
Paul Auster
Author · 52 books
Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Report from the Interior, Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Invisible, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has been awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature, the Prix Médicis Étranger, the Independent Spirit Award, and the Premio Napoli. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
