Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #577225 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-02
• Released on: 2004-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 48 pages

From Booklist
Auster fans will recognize Auggie Wren as the proprietor of a Brooklyn cigar store in the film Smoke (1995), written by Auster and starring Harvey Keitel as Auggie. But before smoke came a burning dilemma: the New York Times invites Auster to write a Christmas story, and he is at a total loss. So he confides in Auggie, who says, in the best fairy-tale mode, "If you buy me lunch, my friend, I'll tell you the best Christmas story you ever heard. And I guarantee that every word of it is true." And so the writer listens carefully to the smoke-shop owner's tale of a young shoplifter, a lonely blind woman, and an impromptu Christmas dinner. And even if readers have heard the tale before, they will be enraptured anew, because that's how Christmas stories work. We want to read them over and over again. And this little volume is a jewel, not only because Auster is such a dazzling and canny storyteller but also because of Argentine artist ISOL's superbly jazzy illustrations. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night (0-8050-7320-5), The Book of Illusions (0-312-42181-8), and Timbuktu (0-312-26399-6). I Thought My Father Was God (0-312-42100-1), the NPR National Story Project anthology which he edited, was also a national bestseller. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

ISOL is a celebrated Argentinian illustrator whose work has been featured internationally. She lives in Buenos Aires

Customer Reviews

Fascinating story
Many (many!) years ago I read this story; years later, I saw the film "Smoke" with Harvey Keitel and William Hurt. I was so deeply influenced by both that I suggested that the Great Books discussion group I was in should read this story for our December reading (never mind that half of us are Jewish).

However, back in the day, the story was only a figment of my fevered imagination, if you searched the libraries or the internet (young then). The story had been published only once, in the New York Times, and then dropped to the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, director Wang had gotten in touch with Auster and they had agreed to make it into a film. So it HAD to exist somewhere, right?

After digging into the internet, I located a gentleman who had published a limited edition, William Drenttel. He had published it in a small run of very nicely bound books for a lot of money, or a REALLY limited edition for well over $100.

I wrote (humbly) to him, and here is what he said:

Lori, happy to send you the text for the limited use of your reading group.
I've attached it as a Word file, as well as posted it below. Hope you have a great evening on 1/19. Best, Bill Drenttel


Published by William Drenttel New York & The Delos Press
December 1992
Printed by Libranus Press, England, in an edition of 450
Story Þrst published in The New York Times on December 25, 1990.


Auggie Wren¹s Christmas Story
Paul Auster
Illustration by Brian Cronin

So that is how my book group was able to discuss "Auggie Wren" years before this book became an affordable reality.

Of course I think it is a wonderful and complex story about growth, redemption, sadness, joy, pain, and how to move on with one's life...instruction of a sort.

Auster is brilliant, as always.

The making of 'Smoke'.
Auggie Wren runs a store where you can buy tobacco and magazines. One day a youth steels a few paperbacks and Augggie Wren runs after him. The young man loses his wallet and Auggie stops to pick it up. He looks in the wallet and finds the address
of what turns out to be the grandmother of our young delinquent. ( I can't tell anymore without spoiling the plot ).

Film director Wayne Wang was seduced by this little story and it was he who persuaded Paul Auster to write the script for "Smoke". (1994).

The present edition of "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" has two parts. The first part is a kind of introduction and uses a scene from the film where Auggie shows his photo collection to Paul. Even in this introduction reality and fiction are intertwined to become one and the same.(And isn't this the true value of literature, to erase the borderline between dreams and every day reality ?).
The second part is the story like it was told by Harvey Keitel in "Smoke".
At the end Paul Auster says: " As long as there's one person to believe it, there's no story that can't be true."

An Unsentimental Christmas Story
Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster is one of those short books which is fun to read either before, during or even after the holidays.

Paul Auster, the highly regarded author, is asked to write an editorial piece which will appear on Christmas morning in the NY Times. At first Mr. Auster doesn't even want to write the article fearing he has nothing to say, but then he's worn down and agrees to do this. One thing the author knows is he doesn't want to write
anything sentimental. Readers should think of his thoughts as a non Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. When in fact he sits down to write the article, though, he has trouble actually write this unsentimental tale. Days go by and he has nothing written on paper to show for his efforts.

Fearing he may never write this article, Mr. Auster mentions his problem one day to the man who owns a small newspaper and cigar store in his neighborhood. The man, Auggie Wren promises to tell him a Christmas story if he treats him to lunch. And so over lunch the author listens to a tale which is both sentimental and poignant which asks what does a wallet, a blind woman and a camera have to do with each other. More important than the answer which these questions raise are the more important ones like what is true, what is lying and did any or all of these events really ever happen.

This is a warm and somewhat sentimental story, despite what the author hoped for, about the spirit of the holidays in the tradition of O. Henry's Gift of the Magi. Consider buying this title for next Christmas. This book is just perfect as a holiday gift and sure to be a keeper in the future.