Paul Auster, “4 3 2 1”, 2017

Paul Auster, author of several novels, screenplays, books of poetry and film director, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded on February 14, 2017 in the KPFA studios while on tour for his still most recent novel, 4 3 2 1.

Paul Auster’s novel is an epic 850 page story of how circumstance changes us. Archie Ferguson takes four different directions in this novel: in one his family has become rich, in another they’re poor, in a third he loses his father in a fire, and in a fourth he remains middle class. With the same genes, each Archie grows up differently. Born in New Jersey in 1947 (as is Paul Auster), Archie is precocious, a writer … the book shows how different developments lead to different outcomes: whether you go left, right, or straight ahead, something might happen that will change your life.  In the interview, Paul Auster also talks about his film-making career and about how his life relates to this novel.

As of February, 2023, 4 3 2 1 remains Paul Auster’s most recent novel to date. Since that publication, there have been five non-fiction works, most recently Bloodbath Nation, an 89 page essay with photographs on gun culture in The United States, published in January 2023, Burning Boy, a biography of the poet and author of The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane, published in October 2021, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Groundwork, a collection of autobiographical writings, published in May 2020, and Talking to Strangers, a collection of other writings, published in 2019, and A Life in Words, a dialogue between Paul Auster and the Danish philosopher I. B. Siegumfeldt, published in October 2017. This podcast was first posted on April 1, 2017.

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