Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure

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.

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 The early previously unpublished works included in the book are a must for fans and Auster must be commended for being so brave as to include them here.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.

The early, unending attempts of Paul Auster to become a writer, in both the wordly and literary sense. The monumental quantity of his failures is an example to all would-be artists, of any genre, of the need to persevere in one's creative efforts. He includes three samples of his early and unsuccessful attempts, and through these examples the reader sees Auster's beginning efforts at expressing themes which he later developed fully. Not too many people are willing to expose their awkward early attempts, but by including these early examples, it gives us the extraordinary chance to compare them to their later, final form in his published works. An unusually honest and intimate look at the struggle to create, and the mindboggling tenacity it requires.

Why read Paul Auster? Because he is simply the best American fiction's write alive! Maybe when starting reading his books (especially Hand to Mouth)you feel as you have it done before. You may think, sure I read something like that before! That's true. Paul Auster is a mix of Knut Hamsun, John Fante and Charles Bukowski. Hand to Mouth is quite similar to Hunger and all the stuff Bukowski and Fante wrote. But there's one big difference. Auster is not crude as the others and he writes fiction in a way to make the words easy to swallow as a good wine. He has the magic to catch our attention when we read the first paragraph of any of his books. Hand to Mouth is really short (I'm not talking about the appendices) and seems like a sudden death. But I'm sure that's not the last autobiographical book Auster wrote (and his better at that) and I hope I can read more and more new books from him.

Paul gives us his first book under his new contract. The result: A short memior, some plays, a detective novel, and something about "Action Baseball (I can't figure it out). Everthing except the memior (Hand To Mouth) are from his early days. Nothing breathtaking, but it's Paul Auster, so that means it's good. Regarding his memior, I must say that Mr. Auster is a very lucky man. Look how long it took Kelman to win the Booker Prize. And, more importantly, what happened to him. Anyway, this is a good book for fans. New ones should read "The NY Triology" and maybe "Moon Palace."