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Remark on books, authors, the writing process Similarities to author\'s life Some aspects of the main character\'s life in Moon Palace mirror the life of the author. He was a descendant of an Austrian Jewish family, born on the Third of February 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, which is only 20 miles southwest of New York. He also attended high school there. In his childhood, Auster\'s father Samuel Auster was often absent. Samuel Auster was a businessman who left the house in the morning before his son was awake and returned home when he was already in bed. Auster always searched for someone to replace his father.
Unlike his father his mother gave Auster very much attention. · Paul Auster and Marco Fogg were both born in 1947. · Marco\'s, Solomon\'s and Paul\'s father were all absent during their sons\' childhoods. · When Paul\'s uncle travelled to Europe he stored several boxes of books at the Austers\' home. Paul Auster read one book after the other. The same goes for Marco, who read his Uncle Victor\'s books.
· They both studied at Columbia University, New York. · Both Paul and Marco lost a lot of weight after running out of money. · Effing and Paul went to France (Paris). Interview with Paul Auster, 21 February 1993: CP: "Right, I agree completely. But you do mention a lot literary names and books in all of your works. This seems to point the reader to your influences, or to authors who share similar ideas with you.
" PA: "Well, yes, but when you get right down to it, in City of Glass there are books mentioned, and then a little bit in Ghosts, one or two books. Moon Palace is a book filled with books. But it all depends on the narrator or the protagonist of the story. Fogg is my most bookish, overly intellectual character, and his head is stuffed with books. [.] Even though he\'s a reader, there are very few intellectual references in the book. It all depends on who\'s telling the story or who the story is about.
..I\'ve also noticed a strange alternation in my works between what I would call rather labyrinthine structures, complicated books, followed by very straight, simple, linear books. The pattern just continues: after the Trilogy, which was very complicated, came In the Country of Last Things, which is just-well, a line. And then Moon Palace is very knotted up [.] " The writing process: Influences on the author's works Auster's writings often center on New York and especially Brooklyn. New York is seen as a vibrant city of the second half of the 20th century and the city of famous baseball teams.
In this novels, he often features cosmopolitan Manhattan, Columbia University and Brooklyn with its pleasant residential areas and its museum, and quite often he discusses the ups and downs of various baseball teams and players. New York City is often linked to a labyrinth. The characters walk its streets to solve a puzzle. They try to get to know and understand the city, but never really get to grips with it. Auster's works reveal a closeness to New England and its writers Emerson, Thoreau and Hawthorne, who studied at university and are often mentioned in his books. New England's cultural climate seems to attract Auster, as he regularly seeks retreat there.
With his academic background and his broad theoretical literary knowledge, Auster is well aware of the development of fiction in the second half of the 20th century form Modernism to Postmodernism. Elements of Postmodernism can easily be detected in Auster's books: The fundamental doubts of whether language and texts can represent reality and express truth, the shifting perspectives within the novels, making use of various narrators of fiction including the real author, the integration of books within books, the cross references between individual books. All these devices are used to deconstruct reality and are regarded as postmodern elements of fiction. With Auster's many specific and concrete references to place and time, one might read his novels as true stories. Many of the events are, however, so improbable, absurd and coincidental that his books clearly transcend reality. Quotations: CHAPTER 2 Lazarillo de Tormes Ch.
III Lazarillo de Tormes is one of the most famous picaresque novels. It details the life and adventures of a young man in 16th century Spain. In this chapter Lazarillo describes his time working for the poverty-stricken hidalgo (cf. p. 66, ll. 23ff.
). The English translation is easy to understand. The full text of the novel can be found at various addresses on the Internet - just type in \"Lazarillo de Tormes\" in any search engine. CHAPTER 3 Giordano Bruno A biography of the Italian philosopher (p. 92, l. 20) Joseph Joubert A brief biography of the French philosopher (p.
92, l. 21) Leon Trotsky A biography of the Russian revolutionary (p. 100, l. 21) CHAPTER 4 Cicero A biography of the Rome\'s greatest orator (p. 113, l. 56).
Nathaniel Hawthorne A biography of the writer (p. 146, l. 17). Julian Hawthorne A biography of the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne (p. 146, ll. 16-17ff.
). Herman Melville A biography of the writer (p. 146, l. 22) Ralph Waldo Emerson A biography of the poet and leading exponent of transcendentalism (p. 146, l. 23).
CHAPTER 5 George Berkeley A biography of the clergyman and philosopher (p. 192, l. 36, p. 193, ll. 63ff.).
Giovanni Boccaccio A biography of the author of the Decameron (p. 198, l. 21). The Thousand and One Nights A description of this famous collection of tales (p. 198, l. 21).
Comedy of Errors A brief description of Shakespeare\'s play (p. 198, l. 22). King Lear A brief description of Shakespeare\'s play (p. 198, l. 22).
Scroll down to \'King Lear\'. King Lear, Act III, Sc 2 In this scene Lear acts out his madness in the middle of a storm, a scene which Marco compares to Effing\'s behavior in the storm in New York (p. 212, l. 3) Sir Thomas Wyatt A brief biography of the English poet (p. 217, l. 59).
Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke A brief biography of the English poet (p. 217, l. 59).
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