Status: 11.01.2024, 14:49 PM
By: Sven Trautwein
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In "Baumgartner", Paul Auster tells the story of a man who, despite the loss of his wife, does not lose the will to live. A novel that combines sorrow and hope.
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For a decade, Professor Baumgartner has been living in the shadow of the loss of his deceased wife. Nevertheless, he strives to continue his life and his writing work. Paul Auster, who has been battling cancer for more than a year, reflects on the inevitable end in his novel. And yet it is a book that gives hope and belongs on the shelf with books worth reading. Our book of the week.
Paul Auster "Baumgartner": That's what the book is about
Paul Auster presents a humorous and profound novel. "Baumgartner" is our book of the week. © Agencia EFE/Imago/Rowohlt (Assembly)
How can you go on living when someone so important has died? When a part of one's life is lost forever? Somehow get over it, close it as quickly as possible and don't look back? These are the questions posed by the main character in "Baumgartner" by Paul Auster. Looking back is somehow in the nature of things.
Professor Seymour T. Baumgartner, among friends Sy, is a phenomenologist emeritus from Princeton over seventy years of age, devoted himself to writing philosophical books and, increasingly, to his youthful reminiscences: his petty-bourgeois origins in Newark; the difficult marriage of his parents, going to college and studying in Paris; and finally, his love for the translator and poet Anna, with whom he spent the happiest years before she fell victim to a swimming accident ten years ago.
Blurb/Rowohlt
Despite the serious subject matter, "Baumgartner" is a very humorous book at times, which is thanks to the main character, into whose world of thoughts Paul Auster takes his readers. This phenomenology professor at Princeton tends to be a very upset old man and feels that way, with shuffling and moaning and accidentally undressed pants, and the loss of the woman he loves is indeed insurmountable. This makes the character all the more endearing and the book well worth reading.
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Paul Auster "Baumgartner": Conclusion
The character Baumgarnter is a true stand-up man. No matter what low blows he experiences, he always gets back up, even if it takes his time. Despite the small size, this portrait of a rather charming character does not seem incomplete, but allows a fulfilled life to emerge before the reader's eyes in cleverly composed scenes. One that is always fondly remembered.
It is a touching and readable novel with a lot of hope.
Paul Auster "Baumgartner"
Translated by Werner Schmitz
2023 Rowohlt, ISBN-13 978-3-498-00393-7
Price: Hardcover 22 €, e-book 19.99 €, 208 pages (different format)
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Paul Auster
Born in 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, Paul Auster is a renowned author. He studied English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and lived in France for a few years after graduating. His novels "In the Land of the Last Things" and the "New York Trilogy" brought him international recognition. In addition to a large number of novels, his extensive and award-winning oeuvre also includes essays, poems and translations of contemporary poetry.
What our grandparents read in the 1970s can be found here.