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    Here and Now: Letters (2008 - 2011)
    Unavailable
    Here and Now: Letters (2008 - 2011)
    Unavailable
    Here and Now: Letters (2008 - 2011)
    Audiobook7 hours

    Here and Now: Letters (2008 - 2011)

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The high-spirited correspondence between New York Times bestselling author Paul Auster and Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee

    Although Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee had been reading each other's books for years, the two writers did not meet until February 2008. Not long after, Auster received a letter from Coetzee, suggesting they begin exchanging letters on a regular basis and, "God willing, strike sparks off each other."

    Here and Now is the result of that proposal: the epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friends. Over three years their letters touched on nearly every subject, from sports to fatherhood, film festivals to incest, philosophy to politics, from the financial crisis to art, death, family, marriage, friendship, and love.

    Their correspondence offers an intimate and often amusing portrait of these two men as they explore the complexities of the here and now and is a reflection of two sharp intellects whose pleasure in each other's friendship is apparent on every page.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 7, 2013
    ISBN9781101607190
    Unavailable
    Here and Now: Letters (2008 - 2011)

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    Reviews for Here and Now

    4/5

    6 ratings5 reviews

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    • 2/5
      it starts with a beautiful conversation about friendship and becomes boring and boring
    • 4/5
      I’ve read maybe half of Coetzee, but only one Paul Auster book besides this one.I believe it was in this collection of correspondence that I found one of my favorite lines, related by Auster, about the business of living, having life happen to you, getting old, watching friends and family die, and then dying yourself: “As my friend George Oppen once said to me about getting old: what a strange thing to happen to a little boy.”
    • 3/5
      Occasional insights, mild pleasures. Nothing here to pierce armour in this chatty exchange between two polished performers. Both were feeling their age; Auster was 61 and Coetzee 68 when their correspondence began. They are grumpy about the way the world has changed as the years have passed. Writing in 2010, Coetzee lamented the 'mean vision' that has come to dominate the practice of politics and signs off, 'Yours in dark times'. Auster responds with an extended reflection on the 'great carnival of stupidity that has become our public life'. Fortunately for the reader, their doom gives way to nostalgia, as they exchange memories of the portable typewriter and the landline telephone. Auster still types his correspondence on an Olivetti Lettera 22. (to be continued)
    • 5/5
      This book ended too soon. The second they do another I am all over it
    • 4/5
      Without having read any letters by either Paul Auster or J.M. Coetzee, it is hard to decide how "natural" this collection of correspondence is. Any two writers can of course be friends, and will then, likely correspond. Still, the start of this correspondence per explicit suggestion to "begin exchanging letters on a regular basis" does smack a bit of commercial interest.The somewhat artificial basis of the correspondence remains in the background, and resonates with the decision to publish such a small, immature collection within five years of its commencement: Here and now. Letters 2008-2011.Auster and Coetzee do not have much in common, and do not have much to tell each other. They banter a bit about writing, mentioning books, which they have often "seen" in film adaptations. Their closest proximity is in the discussion of major literature, which, inevitably, both of them have read: Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and to a lesser extent, Philip Roth.There is quite a lot of talk about politics, esp. Israel, and sports. All rather banal.Auster is revealed as not using email or a mobile phone, and there is some further discussion about their attachment to type writers, and the significance of modern communication technology to prose fiction.Fortunately, both authors are gifted writers, and the letters read easily. Therefore, despite its limited interest, reading Here and now. Letters 2008-2011 does not set the reader back much time, and could be read at a glance in a few hours.