Another great New York narrator has passed away after Susan Sontag and Philip Rotht. It is very sad that Paul Auster, being in such a creative power, died – prose writer, playwright and journalist Remigiusz Grzela told PAP about the American writer and film director who died at the age of 77.
The New York Times reported Paul Auster’s death on Wednesday. Author, among others, “The New York Trilogy” passed away at his home in Brooklyn, New York. The cause of death was complications caused by lung cancer.
The American writer and director was one of Remigiusz Grzela’s favorite creators. In the past, as an aspiring writer, Grzela repeatedly read his films, including: co-created with Wayne Wang “Smoke” and “Brooklyn Boogie”. He was especially impressed by the scene from “Smoke” taking place in a Brooklyn thrift store, the owner of which has been taking photos of the street in front of the store every day for years. In this sequence, the photographer shows the client a photo album, and the client recognizes his tragically deceased wife in one of them. “It reveals a completely different perspective. Suddenly it turns out that someone who takes photos of the same point every day captures something in the frame that no one expected. The wife, who is no longer here, is in the photos. He walks down the street at a certain time. This scene is especially memorable for someone who tells stories because it makes them ask more questions. If we talk to someone and we feel that everything has already been said, there can always be something to add,” he said.
Grzela also mentioned, among others, reading “The New York Trilogy” – Auster’s magnum opus, which “gives readers an idea of what kind of city New York is.” “This is a more daring, criminal story. However, there is a book by Paul Auster for which I am particularly grateful – ‘The Book of Illusions’. It touches on perhaps the same topic I was talking about a moment ago. Namely, it’s about an actor playing in silent films who died somewhere. Actually, it is not known what happened to him. He was there and disappeared into the fog. Years later, someone thinks they recognize him. We are starting to trace this man’s story,” he said.
The writer also pointed out that Auster, being an intellectual, conducted a dialogue in his novels with other masters of storytelling, such as Franz Kafka. “He portrayed intellectual New York, brilliant characters who read books, think, intrigue, and carry secrets. He revealed subsequent layers of the characters and showed that there is always something more to learn. Very sad that Paul Auster died with such creative power. Another great narrator of New York has passed away after Susan Sontag and Philip Roth,” he concluded.
Paul Auster was born on February 3, 1947 in Newark, New Jersey into a Jewish family. His ancestors came to the USA from Poland. He was a writer, screenwriter, essayist, translator and film director. He became a New York literary icon with his “New York Trilogy,” published in 1987. These are three detective novels (“Glass City”, “Ghosts”, “The Locked Room”), the main content of which were existential reflections embedded in the landscape of the “city that never sleeps”. His last book is “Baumgartner”, published last year and not yet translated into Polish.
He died on April 30. He was 77 years old. (PAP)
author: Daria Porycka
dap/ wj/