I finished reading his latest book Invisible a week or so ago. It was a great novel and it displays many of his favourite tricks and characteristic verve in the writing. I've been musing about what to say about it for a few days, and am finding it very difficult indeed to describe its brilliance adequately and to give a synopsis without spoilers, so I am going to be deliberately vague about plot and concentrate on other aspects.

Invisible is one of his multi-layered best - I loved it. The key character is a young man, Adam, who has a defining moment in his life which has big consequences, and he looks back on what happened that spring in his memoirs.

Written in four parts, we start off in the first person, hearing the story through Adam himself. In the second we move onto a second person narrative, then the story is taken over in the third person by a friend from Adam's student days. In the final part, Adam is all but invisible, but the consequences of what happened back then still resonate as the tale is drawn to its conclusion

One of Auster's favourite devices is to embed a book within a book and using an author as a central character as he does here. There is always a strong psychological element to his books and in this novel, truth and memory are intertwined in the memoir with shocking events and tender moments but which are real and which imagined?

Invisible is up there with his best, and I highly recommend it. (Book supplied by Librarything Early Reviewers). ( )

Paul Auster has been described as “a one trick pony that’s saddled up and left town” so much in thrall to the conventions of metafiction that any narrative drowns under the weight of post modern literary artifice. This is arguably not the case with “Invisible”.
Whilst the trademark preoccupations (memory, truth, despair …) are present they don’t obtrude. This is actually a, relatively, conventional coming of age story. Told in four interlocking parts, the prose is precise and controlled. The dialogue is convincing and the narrative voices are well differentiated. There are momentary lapses but these are neatly dealt with. Without revealing any plot details the interlocking parts are independently authored. Whilst the names have been changed to protect the innocent the text has otherwise been rendered accurately - it’s the post-modern authors “get out of jail card”.

It’s still a “tricksy” novel though, but it’s not a full blown “Philip K Dickian” “mind-f**k”. There’s the usual blurring of boundaries – Adam Walker is a Columbia student (guess where Paul Auster went), Georges Perec gets a mention – no one reads airport thrillers in an Auster novel, and as you’d expect it abounds with references and allusions (I think!). I’m fairly sure I didn’t get one half of them but I’m convinced Rudolf Born bears more than a passing resemblance to Kurtz although, naturally, it’s the Marlon Brando reincarnation that features. Sadly I can’t mention any others without a spoiler warning (or maybe that’s my own get out of jail card?)

So Although “Invisible” is firmly within the Auster fold it’s also his most readable to date. With previous novels it’s hard to avoid the feeling that they are read in the main by cognoscenti ticking off or nodding to each reference in smug satisfaction. It’s still an option here but more than any of his previous work it’s also possible to just sit back and enjoy the ride. ( )

Reading a Paul Auster novel is like entering a puzzle. There's the mystery of who's actually telling the story (Invisible has 5 distinct voices); there's the mystery of who's actually telling the truth (the characters contradict each other and we're never completely sure who's lying); and then there's the building mystery of the story itself (like a good thriller, Auster's plot keeps you turning the pages). It's great fun, peeling back the layers only to reveal more questions. You feel as if the revelations could go forever.

In a Granta interview, Auster says that his writing has always come from a source of "intense emotion." I was a little surprised to hear that since I've more often experienced a sort of cool intellectualism in his prose. But I think he is hitting his stride with Invisible. I found myself deeply moved by the character of Adam Walker, in particular during the second part of his story in which he describes his relationship with his sister Gwyn. These scenes can be difficult to read given the extreme taboo nature of the subject matter, but that just heightens the depth of the emotional impact. As Auster says in the interview, "clarity is the most unsettling thing possible." It's difficult to stare into the face of what truly disturbs us. Add to that the doubt that begins to spread across the whole story, and we as readers are properly unsettled. I have to admit that I enjoyed the experience immensely. ( )

Invisible by Paul Auster is an extremely intriguing book. The story revolves around the life of Adam Walker, particularly what happens during the year 1967. I don't want to give away too much about the book, since part of its worth is in what happens to Walker and how the story is told. I found it to be an intriguing, quick read, proving again that Paul Auster is one of the most inventive American authors today. ( )