Book Review: Report from the Interior by Paul Auster

Title: Report from the Interior
Author: Paul Auster
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 978-0571303687
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoirs
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

I have never read anything like this. I had said that about Winter Journal some time ago. Now I say it about Report from the Interior, written by the same author. “Report from the Interior” is quite a deceptive title and yet only apt when you start reading the book and getting to know more about the content and what it is about. There are very few books that I can reread and this one is definitely one of them which I will go back to sometime. Perhaps, this year itself.

“Report from the Interior” is about childhood. It is about Auster’s childhood but it could be about anyone’s childhood to be honest. He encounters the outer world with the experiences of his interior self and that is the beauty with which he documents it in this book. He speaks of his childhood most fondly at times and sometimes as matter-of-fact as it can get. From his view of the man-in-the-moon to cowboys to the magic of movies to war, he does not skip any topic of his growing-up years.

What is interesting is how the book emerges – how the stream of consciousness takes place as Paul the child grows up and starts noticing and making sense of life to some extent. The writing as usual is impeccable. There is not a single sentence which is out of place. Not a single word which should not have been there. The final piece of the book is told in pictures – of everything, almost everything he has written, linking memories – piece by piece and trying to make them perfect.

“Report from the Interior” can be read by anyone and everyone can connect with it. The idea of so-called, “growing-up” with what was and what is to come is identified by everyone. We have all lived through and experienced it. This book just makes you realize it, page by page. A wondrous read for the winter. A must read I would say.