Literature has taken the place of life Paul Auster many times. It happened to take on the horrible undertones of a tragedy. Existential precariousness, one of the themes so dear to this giant of literaturewho passed away yesterday due to cancer, became a reality in April two years ago, when his son Daniel, 44 years old, died from aheroin overdose.
An atrocious story. Daniel Auster he was arrested on Easter Sunday 2022 and then released on bail pending trial for the death of his 10-month-old daughter Ruby, which occurred in the winter of 2021. The little girl was killed by fentanyl and heroin. In the house that day, there was his father, Daniel Auster, who would later be accused of manslaughter. He said his daughter had ingested it drug while he slept.
Daniel, son from Paul’s first marriage to Lydia Davishe was “damned”: he came arrested numerous times for drugs, lived through petty thefts. Daniel could very well have been one of the characters of keep the wolf from the door, a 1997 novel (all of Auster is published in Italy by Einaudi). The miracle of literature here is the son who can become the father: in the book, Paul told how he got by in Paris with the most disparate jobs, including occasional collaborations with newspapers, translations of works from French, in a precarious situation that seemed eternal. Daniel is also the boy who steals a book in the movie Smoke (1995) by Paul Auster.
It is exciting to scroll through the heartbreaking photos of his second wife and writer today Siri Hustvedt on Instagram: the Auster family which is reborn with the arrival of another grandson, Miles, born last New Year, daughter Sophie’s firstborn. Paul’s gaze meeting that of the newborn.
Auster’s family history experienced another literary chapter with The invention of solitude (1982), autobiographical novel «with the original intertwining of essay, fiction and autobiography», a poignant and withering book that was born from the experience of death of Paul’s fatherwith whom he had a very difficult relationship.
«Moments of crisis double the vitality in men. Or perhaps, more simply: men are beginning to live fully only when their backs are against the wall», wrote Auster ne The Book of Illusions (2002). Paul, who life forced with his back to the wall until the end, knew how to paint the walls of the room in which he lived with poignant and touching grace.
