Auggie Wren's Christmas Story Hardcover – 1 Oct. 2009

I first heard this story in the film 'Smoke' which Harvey Keitel narrates to William Hurt and I couldn't help but hear his voice as I turned the pages. It is a small, compact, little book which can read in a single sitting. Found some of the illustrations a little strange but the hardcover and size would make for a lovely stocking filler or simply one to add to the Auster collection.

The story contained in these pages is a short one, yet featuring the colourful character of Auggie Wren, Brooklyn cigar store proprietor, it overflows with meaning, optimism and humanity. Fans of Auster will nod at the author's traditional appearance in his own work, casting as he does, some doubt about whether the story is a "true" one or merely another work of fiction. "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" exists in that uncertain, unknowable hinterland between Auster's reality and the reader's. Beautifully bound and illustrated, for existing disciples of Paul Auster, this is a neat and welcome trinket that will sit proudly in the collection. For newcomers, both the tale itself and the accompanying images drawn so playfully by illustrator "Isol" will serve as a useful entry point for the ambiguous worls of the author.

Granted I didn't read this for kicks. It was for university because we had to study the movie "Smoke" which was based in this story.I didn't know it was short and so small, but what lacks in size it gains in depth. A really lovely story. Personally I recomend it...if possible with the movie Smoke afterwards.

Talking from the perspective of an Auster loving home, this little book was not disappointing at all. It was short, but non pretentious and the illustrations are original.

I believe this story belongs in a land where if you go looking for good things, you don't find them (and I've been looking for this one for over a decade), but then, one day, by chance, quite unexpectedly, something good will find you. If that sounds overly sentimental, well, shucks!

The film is a great adaptation of the short story. Harvey Keitel is such a wonderful actorThis version of the book is greatly illustrated, it's a geat edition, really I enjoyed it from cover to cover even though I already knew the story well.

Fascinating illustrations - lovely book. Good to see the Short Story format being taken so seriously.

Arrived and read it in the few minutes after. It resounded with the many times random, imperfect encounters (in the corner of a cafe, or a bus or a plane) have led to something "other" in my own existence. Often we look and don't "see". Or we don't look. Auggie Wren is a call to attention, to "seeing" through the tenuous fabric of life and maximising, relishing, the hand it deals you. The question is: when, and how, do we start to see the pattern/s in things, in our own life? Are occasional glimpses enough? Do we always need a mentor a-la-Auggie Wren?I love the wicked mystery, the delighted smiles of someone (Auggie) that searches for, has glimpsed, that something "other". And who, like the narrator, hasn't had that fortuitous encounter that has left them wondering who that person, that stranger, was, if they and their story were actually real? Life is a jigsaw puzzle with lots of pieces missing (but a few in place).The illustrations added to that sense of a certain path or order found in the middle of chaos, but the text is more than rounded enough in itself.Beautifully brief and simple.