Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure

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Summary: Paul Auster's Hand to Mouth: Treading over old ground
Review: Paul Auster's latest book disappointingly contains no significant work of new fiction. Although Auster gives an intriguing insight into his early years as a struggling writer in and around New York and Paris, it seems to be more about bringing an era to an end, rather than the new beginning I'd hoped for. One would have thought that after "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face" Auster would be ready to try something new. But for someone familiar with "Squeeze Play" Auster's latest book contains little in the way of new material - and could almost be regarded as an appendix to "The Red Notebook". Ultimately I was very disappointed that Auster should breeze back into the literary frame with such a low-key piece of work. It's been a long while (too long) since "MR Vertio"; and although the films "Smoke" and "Blue In the Face" gave us something new, I'd like to see one of America's most prominent literary writers taking more chances if he is to maintain his current high profile. This is unfortunately not a significant return to fiction and more a book for dedicated followers.

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Summary: the world of litterature and writing
Review: This is a book for hardcore Auster fans only, I think. It has interesting tidbits that illuminate his prose and the 'chronicle of early failure' is indeed harrowing and interesting. yet, unlike most of Auster's prose, this account never trandescends itself; that is, it doesn't achieve the luminescence of the prose that Auster is capable of. There was a LOT of filler near the end of the book too (did we really need to see the Action Baseball game?) A far better account of the starving artist routine is Samuel Delany's _The Motion of Light in Water_