ABSTRACT
Thus begins a fabulous novel by Paul Auster (2002). With a quotation by the romanticist writer Chateaubriand, we embark in Book of Illusions on a wild journey in the story of a man whose life circumstances change dramatically time and again, bringing an almost surreal quality to a common psychological reality in contemporary life. As readers, we ask ourselves: is this person really the same person as he learns the ropes, managing to navigate in many different social contexts? From being a poor immigrant to a famous silent comedian, to murderer on the run, harbour worker, salesman, actor in a touring peep show, local hero in Sandusky, Ohio etc., until he ends his days in a desert in New Mexico with the one love of his life and lots of secretly directed movies. How much of this life story is his own making, and to what degree can one say that he is already being narrated as with determination he repeatedly musters all his courage, exploiting creative intuition to place himself somewhere else in order to become somebody else?
