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    Invisible: A Novel
    Invisible: A Novel
    Invisible: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Invisible: A Novel

    Written by Paul Auster

    Narrated by Paul Auster

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    "One of America's greatest novelists" dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date

    Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Paul Auster's fifteenth novel opens in New York City in the spring of 1967, when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girfriend, Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life.

    Three different narrators tell the story of Invisible, a novel that travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from Morningside Heights, to the Left Bank of Paris, to a remote island in the Caribbean. It is a book of youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity, to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as "one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateOct 27, 2009
    ISBN9781427208064
    Invisible: A Novel
    Author

    Paul Auster

    Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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    Reviews for Invisible

    3.5/5

    663 ratings58 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Invisible by Pete Hautman illustrates a relationship of two young guys who are completely opposite but are the best of friends. Building train models helps Doug with what he is going through and keeps his mind at ease. His parents make him see a counselor, which he feels is a waste: " Dr. Ahlstrom is not helping me one bit" says Doug. "Why" his mom replies, "Because I do not need help" (pg. 22). Throughout the middle Doug faces many obstacles but preservers through them with Andy's advice. However, the two friends have a big secret and as the story progresses Dougie reveals more and more. By the end, Doug remembers everything that happened the day Andy and him spent time together and is troubled with coping that he lost his best friend that day; the whole time Andy was just a figment of his imagination or was he really there… (160/160)
    • 4/5
      this book was really good. i liked how it slowly unwinds to the killer sence where the guy finally confesses about who really called the police and how they finally telll us that the guys best friend has been dead the entire time and he has been imagining the whole book.
    • 4/5
      Auster is one of my very favorite novelists of all time. Can I explain it? Not really. He engages self-consciously with the narrative form in ways that would drive me nuts in other novels, but manages always to bring it off with taste and grace. From the first page, I am fully engrossed in his novels. This was not my absolute favorite of his, which is why I gave it 4 rather than 5, but a worthy addition to his collection of novels. Finished this one in a day...now I have to wait (sigh) for the next one.
    • 4/5
      Invisible is about a teenager named Douglas. He's like the person at school that nobody likes because of how he is. He gets into all sorts of trouble with his best friend Andy. Who is really popular at school but Douglas's parents don't want Douglas to hang around him. The overall book was allright but I didn't really like Douglas but the surprise ending was pretty good.
    • 5/5
      Doug and Andy are friends. Doug is eccentric and is building a elaborate trains set. Doug withdraws more and more. He draws a D and S. As the story progresses the D and S evolve into something m ore sininster. Doug finally finds his reality when he realizes Andy has died in a fire trying to retrieve something for Doug a couple of years earlier.
    • 4/5
      Short yet very well written. I enjoyed figuring out what was going on here in Dougie's world. Hard to put down
    • 4/5
      Reminded me a little of I am the Cheese. The boy in the story is living in a fantasy world. He has one friend, who is very cool and popular. He is obssessed with his train platform.The main character can hardly relate to anyone his age. He is stalking the prettiest girl in school. He has huge problems. We find out why later in the book as ther pieces of the puzzle come together.
    • 4/5
      This was a very well executed book. The writing was excellent and suspenseful. The ending was absolutely chilling. I don't see how Hautman could have done a better job with this novel.
    • 5/5
      If there was ever a perfect story,then it's this.
    • 3/5
      Invisible is the story of a boy and his best friend. Although the two are polar opposites, they grow up together and remain loyal to each other even in high school. However, there is a secret they have and Dougie, the main character, reveals more and more about the secret as the story progresses.What begins as an ordinary story about a teen and his best friend turns into a twisting puzzle that highlights the emotional damage from which some may never recover.Invisible is a quick read with an end that doesn't disappoint.
    • 2/5
      Doug and Andy are best friends, even though Andy's a popular jock and Doug spends all of his free time building a model train bridge out of matchsticks.Psychological tale about two young boys who have an accident and the pain it causes one of them.
    • 5/5
      Whoa...disturbing. but it was good. i really like this author. the first one i read of his was "Godless" which i really enjoyed. i have not been let down yet!
    • 5/5
      Another brilliant and thought-provoking volume from Paul Auster. The shift in POVs between the three sections for the 'novel' was a nice touch, as was the introduction of the notion that our main protag was also an unreliable narrator. As usual, Auster delivers another must-read book that is modest in length but not in emotion.
    • 4/5
      Paul Auster's writing is so pleasant to read, it flows so easily and you want to see where it goes. I've enjoyed every one of Auster's books with the exception of "Travels in the Scriptorium" which I found unpleasant. The funny thing is I can't remember what happens in most of his books! I do recall that the first books of his I read (New York Trilogy and the Red Notebook) gave me chills and the feeling that I'd discovered a new world. Another novel of his, which one is unclear to me but that may just be my own faltering memory, has someone trapped in an underground library and the idea of that stuck with me. With this novel, Invisible, Auster explores the fine line dividing fiction and truth. It is told in the 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person and at the end one wonders whether there can be such a thing as "truth" at all. Amazing.
    • 5/5
      Adam Walker, student, is invited to the house of lecturer Rudolf Born. Here he meets the seductive and solitary Margot. His relationship to Margot is secondary to an incident that occurs when in the company of Born, something so disturbing that Walker carries it with him for the rest of his life.This is a magnificent novel. Paul Auster's writing so captivating, so powerful that even when he diverts into areas that some my term taboo he does it with style and conviction, that the reader cannot help but be moved.The action moves swiftly between Walker's youth and his later years, between Paris and New York, and there is a feeling of justice pervailing in the final chapters. I quite simply loved this book, it is short, sharp, poignant, brutal and unforgettable, in equal measures. Highly Recommended.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up because it's on the 1001 books list and on my shelf from a library sale. While I appreciate Auster's concise, self-exploratory tone, I just don't really care for his books. I've found both that I've now read very male-centered and sort of gross. This one has a large scene about an incestuous relationship. There is a certain tone he gets that I can't quite describe but that I do respect even while finding it a bit off-putting. It's hard to describe but his characters are self-reflective (lots of first person), yet self-centered, sort of pretentious and introspective, and engaged in the world in a very narrow way. The story sort of meanders in and out of various plots and ended with a character's voice that didn't wrap things up for me sufficiently. This book was not a good fit for me, but others may like it.
    • 4/5
      Not one of my favorites, but still good. Paul Auster breaks his biggest taboo in Invisible, so it may be a tad shocking to readers. The setting was split between New York City and Paris. I found some of the French phrases to be stumbling blocks just to the point that the flow of reading was slightly off.
    • 4/5
      But Paris is Paris. Paris alone is real says John (who is not really John) in part IV of this novel. He has just listed all the characters in the novel and all the places they lived and worked emphasising that they have all been invented on the instructions of one of the central characters in the story and as this is basically a memoir by Adam Walker (who of course is not Adam Walker), who died before it could be completed then the reader is only certain of one thing - Paris is Paris.This may make the novel sound complicated, but it is certainly not that. It is more or less a linear story told in four parts. Adam Walker writes in the first person in part I concerning an incident that happened 38 years ago when he was a student. A chance meeting at a party got him involved with a political lecturer Rudolf Born and his enigmatic lover Margot. Born takes a liking to Adam as does Margot and they offer to fund him in setting up a new literary magazine, an enterprise that Adam; a student of literature and would-be poet would almost give his right arm to do. Adam is seduced by Margot, but still seems to be on good terms with Born, however a violent incident occurs one evening when he is walking home with Born in a New York (not really New York) side street. A young black man is murdered and Adam is certain that Born committed the act. Born threatens Adam to keep quiet and while Adam wrestles with his conscience Born flees to Paris. What Adam did next is written in part II in the form of a manuscript which he sends to an old college friend 38 years later and is written in the second person. Adam reveals that he has only a short time to live as he is suffering from leukaemia and he begs his friend John (who is now a successful novelist) to read his story with a view to possible publication. John is intrigued and he travels to Adams home to meet him for dinner, but he is too late Adam has died 6 days earlier, but has left a series of notes as to how he wants his story to continue. John rewrites these in part III in the third person and part IV is his own investigation where he tracks down the surviving characters to discover what had happened to Adam. The story Adam tells in his manuscript also reveals an intense incestual relationship with his sister, which she denies and so although his carefully written manuscript seems to be telling a true story almost a confessional, it could be partly or wholly a fantasy. A plausible tale written by and witnessed by different people but it is the story unfolding that makes this book such a page turner. Paul Auster is noted for his ability to turn stories on their head, to make them seem real, confessional, but just a little disorientating, so the reader cannot quite believe them. Invisible has all the hallmarks of an Auster novel; it is his fifteenth, but as well written as it is, it brings nothing new to the table. An entertainment with the usual dollops of sex and intrigue and of course the twin themes of writing and being a novelist takes another turn round the block. I enjoyed the read, but it felt like Paul Auster was writing well within himself, but still I rate it at 3.5 stars.
    • 2/5
      This book left left me feeling empty and not in a good way. I am a fan of modernism but post-modern, self-referential art is way too witty for my tastes and I get stuck in a never ending loop when I read/view/listen to this 'genre'.
    • 5/5
      Auster is one of the most unpredictable contemporary artists, it is virtually impossible to pinpoint a literary style that is truly his. He is also one of the most prolific writers; I keep reading new books by him and I am not halfway through his authorship. Invisible took me by complete surprise. It is a thriller, a meta story of sorts. Reality is clearly in the eyes of the beholder, so is truth. The main character is Adam Walker, a student in New York City who runs into a French professor in 1967 who changes his life and not for the better. We are being told the story in all ways possible: first person singular, second person singular (sic), third person singular, and through an author (Auster?) and the diary notes of another character. It all works incredibly well, making Invisible one of the most intriguing books I have read for a long time, a true page turner. It left me with questions more than answers, but it still left me satisfied.
    • 3/5
      Good story - interesting twists and turns - the first book I have read by Auster - but I don't understand all the RAVE reviews. It was interesting, but it didn't change my life!
    • 4/5
      Good book this not my usual choice. This is the story of Adam Walker coming of age in 1967 this is the time he meets a Frenchman called Rudolf and his girlfriend Margot. Adam starts having an affair with Margot. She goes back to Paris. Rudolf murders a mugger then flees to Paris. Adam then follows Rudolf and Margot have split up by then. Rudolf is getting married to some other woman. Adam wants to let this woman know whats going on. The book jumps to the present day, Adam is dying and his old mate Jim carries on writing Adams memior.
    • 3/5
      One of those books that is hard to review. Good writing check, plot holds together check, themes hard to quantify or qualify, also check. Worth reading, perhaps but worth going to read, to paraphrase Johnson, maybe not.
    • 3/5
      I would have given this book 4 stars if the ending was better. Very entertaining, witty and fast-paced, but the conclusion left me cold.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book right up until the last 30 or so pages, then came an ending which left me feeling as though Auster just ran out of time before deadline and threw some random ideas out with the hope that the reader wouldn't notice. Despite the less than perfect ending it still IMHO rated 4*s.
    • 2/5
      paul auster is a talented writer, no doubt. but the driving force behind the plot and character motivation became stale fairly quickly.
    • 4/5
      This book will stay with you for a long time. Adam Walker, a Columbia English student, randomly meets Rudolph Born and his girlfriend Margot at a party. Born makes Adam a job offer to produce a poetry magazine - an amazing coup, for any student. But things seem not quite right and an unexpected crime completely changes the relationship and the story. This book is gritty fiction that borders on a literary mystery. Deep, dark, and twisted, this story had me captivated all the way to the unsettling ending. I listened to this in audio which was excellently narrated by the author!
    • 3/5
      An interesting novel written in several voices about identity, truth and such. It's both readable and fun.
    • 4/5
      Auster is one our most respected writers, but in the last decade he’s been a little hit or miss. His fans will be back in the fold with this one. It’s an amazing literary psychological thriller that will keep you reading late into the night. Auster’s use of technique is one of his traits, and he does not disappoint with this entry. Don’t wait for the paperback!
    • 4/5

      I found this novel quite unlike many of the other Paul Auster novels I've read in the past. It still has a few of the qualities of experimental fiction, though the main character one can't trust is definitely not as obvious or at the forefront as his other works. There are also a couple of other perspectives that are at play, especially later on in the book, and the oddity of having a protagonist that switches his own perspective from first person to third person in order to conquer the writer's block about events in his own life.

      Without saying too much, I really like any works of art whether it be films or literature that call me to question and really think about everything I've thus far read that I took for granted and consider it with a different light. This novel recalled the novel I read not too long ago by Julian Barnes entitled The Sense of an Ending...it's actually quite difficult to figure out the truth and one can't fail to consider that each reader might sense a bit of her or his own sense of the story based upon her/his own life experiences and how she/he has come to understand the world...this may have been Paul Auster's own intent (and that of Julian Barnes as well) but I'm not sure.

      In any case, it is an interesting read and will probably benefit from a second or third read in the future. It involves a whole host of interesting subjects from civil rights, murder, literature translations all the way to incest and death. Only Auster could really tackle these heavy topics in a way that makes us consider them in this specific way in the narrative of a complex character. The novel is an easy read but don't read it too fast or you may not catch the way Auster commands his language and challenges the reader. It may not be a perfect work but it is well worth reading.

      pg.84 "For the sad fact remains: there is far more poetry in the world than justice."

      pg. 132-133 "She is the only person you can talk to, the only person who makes you feel alive. And yet, happy as you are to be with her again, you know that you mustn't overburden her with your troubles, that you can't expect her to transform herself into the divine surgeon who will cut open your chest and mend your ailing heart. You must help yourself. If something inside you is broken, you must put it back together with your own two hands."

      pg. 216 "Books should be treated with respect, even the ones that make us ill."

      pg. 293 "I sometimes confuse my thoughts about the world with the world itself. I'm sorry if I offended you."