Hand to mouth
Subtitle: a chronicle of early failure
By: Paul Auster.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Henry Holt
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 449
Subjects: Auster, Paul, 1947- -- Homes and haunts -- New York (State) -- New York; Auster, Paul, 1947- -- Homes and haunts -- France -- Paris; Authors, American -- Homes and haunts -- New York (State) -- New York; Authors, American -- Homes and haunts -- France -- Paris; Americans -- France -- Paris -- History -- 20th century; Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography; Authorship -- Economic aspects; New York (N.Y.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century; Paris (France) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century
Description: This is the story of a young man's struggle to stay afloat. By turns poignant and comic, Paul Auster's memoir is essentially an autobiographical essay about money - and what it means not to have it.

From one odd job to the next, from one failed scheme to another, Auster investigates his own stubborn compulsion to make art, and describes his ingenious, often farfetched attempts to survive on next to nothing. From the streets of New York City and Paris to the rural roads of Upstate New York, the author treats us to a series of remarkable adventures and unforgettable encounters and, in several elaborate appendixes, to previously unknown work from these years.

Here are three plays that contain the seeds of inspiration for some of Auster's future work, a tabletop baseball game (complete with cards and rules), and a pseudonymous detective novel - the author's first full-length novel. Each is an example of Auster's effort to make money; each is an illustration of the artist's mind at work. The result is a book of manifold delights and discoveries, an autobiography that resembles no other.
Table of contents: title: Hand to mouth; title: Three plays. Laurel and Hardy go to heaven ; Blackouts ; Hide and seek; title: Action baseball; title: Squeeze play / by "Paul Benjamin".