Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this book, for the author's sake
Review: A major disappointment all the way (I'm happy I'm not the only one to have felt cheated on this one). I'll give Moon Palace or Leviathan 5 stars any day, but this book just should not have been published.
Rating: 
Summary: If you're a starving writer -- you'll understand!
Review: By and large, this book will be of interest to Auster fans only. The first section is a brief autobiography, which may be boiled down to this: "How I Tried to Avoid Having a Regular Job." It's all about the crazy schemes Auster had to make money while not working 9-5. The stories are good, though nothing amazing. As he chronicles his early life, he references his "Appendices" -- a couple of one-act plays, a card-based baseball game he'd invented, and his first novel. I'd say of the entire book, the novel may be the best part. It's strictly a by-the-numbers noir novel (the unwilling detective, the femme fatale, a larger-than-life victim), but it's executed very nicely. It's funny how Auster thinks nothing of his work -- according to the memoir, he churned this out in three months (June-August), which to me is pretty impressive, but I suppose Auster thinks it's just pulp... I don't think it is, though because he stays so within the confines of the genre, it almost comes off as parody. Still, it's an enjoyable read.3 stars
Rating: 
Summary: Auster Fans Only
Review: By and large, this book will be of interest to Auster fans only. The first section is a brief autobiography, which may be boiled down to this: "How I Tried to Avoid Having a Regular Job." It's all about the crazy schemes Auster had to make money while not working 9-5. The stories are good, though nothing amazing. As he chronicles his early life, he references his "Appendices" -- a couple of one-act plays, a card-based baseball game he'd invented, and his first novel. I'd say of the entire book, the novel may be the best part. It's strictly a by-the-numbers noir novel (the unwilling detective, the femme fatale, a larger-than-life victim), but it's executed very nicely. It's funny how Auster thinks nothing of his work -- according to the memoir, he churned this out in three months (June-August), which to me is pretty impressive, but I suppose Auster thinks it's just pulp... I don't think it is, though because he stays so within the confines of the genre, it almost comes off as parody. Still, it's an enjoyable read. 3 stars
Rating: 
Summary: Not All Editions Include Game & Detective Novel Extras
Review: Hand to Mouth, by itself, is a somewhat raw but not at all insensitive memoir of life before publishing. I found it engrossing at times. Auster recounts his youthful rejection of middle class consumerism, his odd and fascinating encounters with all kinds of characters and life situations, his stay in Paris, his first marriage, his ...well... failures to make it big as a writer. His admirable sense of integrity (no jobs except ones literary) unfortunately kept the author wallowing in translation work to put food on the table, and the sense of pain, desperation and even a sort of starvation are palpable. Agonizingly, but rather fittingly, he tells only of his years BEFORE success. This is no rags to fame & riches story. Hand to Mouth is basically a reality check. Of some value to anyone who wants to get published, but the only thing that keeps this from being totally depressing is our knowledge of Auster's eventual literary success. Lovely sections about the wacky people he met on ships and on streets reveal inspiration for characters he brings alive in his humanistic fiction. If you do buy an edition (check out the number of pages before you order) which contains "Action Baseball" and "Squeeze Play", you are in for a treat. The former is a complete card game and the latter is a detective novel. Squeeze Play was written under a pseudonym and features a Jewish private eye with a law degree from Columbia who has a taste for fine wine and music. Mickey Spillane gets urban Semitic spit & polish in this totally enjoyable bonus read.
Rating:
Summary: Not All Editions Include Game & Detective Novel Extras
Review: Hand to Mouth, by itself, is a somewhat raw but not at all insensitive memoir of life before publishing. I found it engrossing at times. Auster recounts his youthful rejection of middle class consumerism, his odd and fascinating encounters with all kinds of characters and life situations, his stay in Paris, his first marriage, his ...well... failures to make it big as a writer. His admirable sense of integrity (no jobs except ones literary) unfortunately kept the author wallowing in translation work to put food on the table, and the sense of pain, desperation and even a sort of starvation are palpable. Agonizingly, but rather fittingly, he tells only of his years BEFORE success. This is no rags to fame & riches story. Hand to Mouth is basically a reality check. Of some value to anyone who wants to get published, but the only thing that keeps this from being totally depressing is our knowledge of Auster's eventual literary success. Lovely sections about the wacky people he met on ships and on streets reveal inspiration for characters he brings alive in his humanistic fiction. If you do buy an edition (check out the number of pages before you order) which contains "Action Baseball" and "Squeeze Play", you are in for a treat. The former is a complete card game and the latter is a detective novel. Squeeze Play was written under a pseudonym and features a Jewish private eye with a law degree from Columbia who has a taste for fine wine and music. Mickey Spillane gets urban Semitic spit & polish in this totally enjoyable bonus read.
Rating: 
Summary: What Gives?!
Review: I must admit that I'd never heard of Paul Auster before reading *Hand To Mouth*, neither during my graduate-level education nor my regular reading efforts afterward. As a struggling writer myself, I bought this book seeking enlightenment, reassurance and perhaps some empathy. However, I found none of these things and couldn't wait to finish *Hand To Mouth* just so I could post a scathing review. Imagine my surprise when I learned (after a brief Web search) that Paul Auster is a revered and studied author. Scholars have actually written books ABOUT him and his work. This is the guy who wrote "Smoke" -- a film I haven't seen, but heard good things about. My question to Auster fans and readers everywhere is: What gives?! This book exasperated me with its cliche-ridden language, vague purpose, anticlimactic anecdotes and that baseball card game -- puh-leeze! For example, on page 54 he writes of violently confronting a fellow sailor who'd been calling him racist names. "...for that one brief instant," Auster writes, "a demon took possession of my soul." That's the best he can do? A demon took possession of his soul? My high school creative writing teacher would've marked me down for such a cliche. Auster writes like an old man talks -- long, rambling, nebulous stories that leave you begging for even the slightest hint of a point. Later he tells a story of going to Mexico to co-write a book with "Madame X" (groan). He tells us: "Without rehashing the whole complicated business (the man who threatened to kill me, the schizophrenic girl who thought I was a Hindu god, the drunken, suicidal misery that permeated every household I entered), the thirty days I spent in Mexico were among the...most unsettling days of my life." Hey, Paul! Guess what? Death threats are interesting. Schizophrenic chicks with Hindu god complexes are interesting. Drunkenness. Suicide. These things are interesting. Some banal story about a failed financial deal is frickin' boring! I kept thinking of the truism brought to light on TV's "Seinfeld" -- "People like interesting writing." Yes, we do. And this is not it. As for the rest of the book (warning to prospective readers: the memoir is a mere third of the book), I did little more than skim over the two plays and card game. I did, however, read the detective novel in its entirety and found it, well, distracting enough to finish. I, too, have considered writing a genre work in the hope of getting published or making some small pittance for my scribbling. Auster's eventual success in doing so does little to encourage me though. And his failures were so poorly described -- I mean, come on, he spent the 60s and 70s jetting back and forth between Paris and New York -- they did me little good either. So why read this book? Well, you just read my review -- you're asking the wrong guy.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite American author
Review: I'm in the fortunate position to have read all of Paul Auster's books within the last decade and look dearly forward to the books he's coming out with this fall, because it seems like a while since I read Hand to Mouth (last summer) and before then Timbuktu (the summer before that). I consider myself particularly lucky that I'll see him live on October 17 at the Herbst Theatre in downtown San Francisco. My favorite Auster books are New York Trilogy and Moon Palace.
Rating:
Summary: For the true auster fan only
Review: Like some obscure import record of your favourite band or musician, Hand To Mouth is really only going to appeal to the most die-hard fan. Auster's honest though somewhat uninteresting chronicle of his early failures may appeal to struggling 20-something wannabe writers, but generally the appeal is limited. One can't help but feel Auster should of held onto this material until later in his life - a complete autobiography in his later years would be more valuable. The early previously unpublished works included in the book are a must for fans and Auster must be commended for being so brave as to include them here. Perhaps most entertaining is the publication of his 'action baseball' game.
Rating:
Summary: If you're a starving writer -- you'll understand!
Review: Paul Auster wrote the screenplay for Smoke, the classy Miramax ensemble drama from 1995. This memoir is deceiving - a 400-page book padded out by 300 pages of appendices. In the memoir part, he mentions his early material not being so great, then he crams his book full of it. But the memoir part is fascinating, an account of the struggles of pre-fame, the journeys people take on their way to success and the uncertainty of eschewing a safe career for an interesting one. Hand to Mouth is encouraging and depressing all at once. Encouraging because it reinforces what I've come to realize about serious writers - that we're fascinated with life and want to absorb and involve ourselves in all facets, which means holding a variety of jobs in a variety of locations and not giving ourselves over to one profession. A lot of Auster's thoughts on life mirrored mine when he was my age. We both graduated college, scoffed at grad school and avoided serious jobs that would bring too many commitments. I purchased this book through Amazon.com right after another great purchase, THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez, about an unlucky writer/lost soul/failure addicted to the personals. Both are compelling, recommended books. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: When Am I Gonna Make A Living?
Review: Paul Auster's autobiographical account spanning about 12 years or so after he finished college, is an excellent exposition of a young writer's search for meaning, and then the translation of that meaning into money, to provide for further existence, to allow the writer to keep producing work, representative of his desires, but also able to be sold for money to continue the quest. The appeal to almost all people is hidden in the fact, that at anytime, any person, can be living a "hand to mouth" existence. This feeling of abject poverty and financial ruin is not uncommon today, in an economy that has lost over 2 million jobs, and forced hundreds of thousands to start their own businesses because work was not available. Those in America who have had to do this, can relate directly to Auster's feelings, especially the salient concept of when will I ever get to the point when I am making a living again, even a somewhat less luxurious one than before, just any living. As usual, Auster uses his incredible incisiveness and truly exceptional clarity in his construction of this book. It is of special interest to Auster readers, as it gives the reader some very interesting information about the author's early days when he was still struggling to become known. But Auster's story is one that every actor, every writer, every lawyer, every doctor, or most of them anyway, have to go through at the beginning, including every new entrepreneur. Becoming established is very hard work. And more people fail, than succeed. This high failure rate is generated by the need to be able to sustain high levels of suffering in bad times, to get to the good times. Most of us are just not up to the task.
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