Author and narrator Paul Auster is an esteemed novelist in his own right, and this exhaustive, and somewhat exhausting, biography of writer Stephen Crane demonstrates a deep empathy for Crane’s writing—and for his brief, hardscrabble life. But does that life, which ended at age 28, really need 800 pages in print and 35+ hours of audio to recount? That—each listener must decide. For this one, the temptation to reach for the fast-forward button was often undeniable. Auster’s voice is pleasing, a bit rough around the edges but sustained by his authority as author and critic. Crane’s life is a subject of considerable interest, and Auster gives it the exacting, penetrating, deeply felt examination it deserves. But half as much would have been more than enough. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
Narrated by Paul Auster
Paul AusterUnabridged — 35 hours, 49 minutes
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
Narrated by Paul Auster
Paul AusterUnabridged — 35 hours, 49 minutes
Overview
This program is read by the author.
Booker Prize-shortlisted and New York Times bestselling author Paul Auster's comprehensive, landmark biography of the great American writer Stephen Crane.
With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age twenty-eight.
Auster's probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next: A controversial article written at twenty disrupts the course of the 1892 presidential campaign, a public battle with the New York police department over the false arrest of a prostitute effectively exiles him from the city, a star-crossed love affair with an unhappily married uptown girl tortures him, a common-law marriage to the proprietress of Jacksonville's most elegant bawdyhouse endures, a shipwreck results in his near drowning, he withstands enemy fire to send dispatches from the Spanish-American War, and then he relocates to England, where Joseph Conrad becomes his closest friend and Henry James weeps over his tragic, early death.
In Burning Boy, Auster not only puts forth an immersive listen about an unforgettable life but also, casting a dazzled eye on Crane's astonishing originality and productivity, provides uniquely knowing insight into Crane's creative processes to produce the rarest of listening experiences-the dramatic biography of a brilliant writer as only another literary master could tell it.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
Editorial Reviews
★ 09/06/2021
Stephen Crane (1871–1900), the author of the classic war novel The Red Badge of Courage, cuts a dashing figure in this beguiling literary biography from novelist Auster (Moon Palace). Delving into Crane’s tragically short and impossibly romantic life, Auster covers Crane’s stint in New York as a freelance journalist, his international celebrity after the publication of his novel, a scandal in which Crane defended a prostitute from false charges of solicitation, the shipwreck that inspired his famous story “The Open Boat,” his reporting under fire during the Spanish-American war, and his death from tuberculosis at the age of 28. Along the way, Auster intertwines the engrossing picaresque with probing interpretations of Crane’s works that consider his intensely lyrical writing, vivid realism, and detached psychological dissections of his characters as they struggle with social isolation and nature (“Most people outgrow their childhood interests and occupations, but Crane never did,” Auster writes). The author also highlights the shipmates that, Auster writes, showed Crane “the subtle, unarticulated brotherhood, which in a universe without meaning is man’s only defense against unmitigated despair.” Auster’s sprawling narrative combines punchy writing and shrewd analysis with an exuberant passion for his subject. The result is a definitive biography of a great writer. Photos. (Oct.)
"A labor of love of a rare kind in contemporary letters. . . . Auster is often sharp-eyed and revealing about the details of Crane's writing."
—The New Yorker
“Incandescent. . . Auster writes with such enrapturing vibrancy, expertise, and empathy that his biography serves as an intensive course in attentive, inquisitive reading as well as a thrillingly insightful and resonant portrait of a young artist.”
—Booklist (starred review)
"Beguiling. . . . Auster's sprawling narrative combines punchy writing and shrewd analysis with an exuberant passion for his subject. The result is a definitive biography of a great writer."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Auster's in-depth exploration of major works like Red Badge is engrossing, as are most of his renderings of Crane's life experiences. . . . Essential."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Paul Auster calls Stephen Crane 'The Burning Boy,' and Crane’s passions burn incandescently in this exceptional biography of a prodigy whose life was cut tragically short. It represents a rare literary match—a visceral affinity—between a biographer and a subject, both masters of modern fiction. And one reads it in the same white heat.”
—Judith Thurman, National Book Award–winning author of Isak Dinesen and Secrets of the Flesh
"Paul Auster’s all-in obsessive engagement with the 19th century Bad Boy of American literature, Stephen Crane, is brilliant and beautiful. Auster's mastery of the historical context, his writerly, troubled, imaginative insights into Crane’s character and the analysis of the works, all superb. And the prose is beautiful — lucid and clear, and yet lyrical and personal. I was deeply moved by his portrayal of Crane's relationships with Conrad and James and other writers of the time and Crane's common law wife, Cora, and his judgmental, bourgeois older brother William. And his delicacy regarding Crane’s other relations with women. All of it. What a story! This is more than a novel, more than a biography, more than a book of critical analysis. This is a significant work of literature. And the most profound homage of one writer to another that I’ve ever read.”
—Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter and The Sweet Hereafter
“One of those books that one reads from beginning to end. It answers a thousand outstanding riddles about Crane, and a memorial that should once and for all place him—a modernist before there was such a thing—among the very greatest American writers.”
—Luc Sante, author of Lowlife and The Factory of Facts
“It’s hard to imagine a more perfect team than Stephen Crane and the author of The Music of Chance. The music here is often terrifying, discordant, a music of sorrow and despair, but it’s still fabulous music. Paul Auster treats biography as an art form, and Crane’s works as old friends, always worth a visit, or a new, alert redescription. The result is incomparable—who else would catch premonitions of Harold Pinter’s plays in Crane’s dialogue—and reminds us eloquently that Crane belongs very much to our own time, more so, perhaps, than to his own.”
—Michael Wood, author of Alfred Hitchcock and The Habits of Distraction
“Burning Boy is an authoritative study of Stephen Crane, whose innovative narrative and poetic techniques foreshadow modern American literature. Paul Auster, one of our preeminent novelists, explores Crane’s psyche with unerring insight and freshly interprets Crane’s genius. This book will revitalize interest in the most important American author of his generation.”
—Paul Sorrentino, author of Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire and editor of Stephen Crane Remembered
Author and narrator Paul Auster is an esteemed novelist in his own right, and this exhaustive, and somewhat exhausting, biography of writer Stephen Crane demonstrates a deep empathy for Crane’s writing—and for his brief, hardscrabble life. But does that life, which ended at age 28, really need 800 pages in print and 35+ hours of audio to recount? That—each listener must decide. For this one, the temptation to reach for the fast-forward button was often undeniable. Auster’s voice is pleasing, a bit rough around the edges but sustained by his authority as author and critic. Crane’s life is a subject of considerable interest, and Auster gives it the exacting, penetrating, deeply felt examination it deserves. But half as much would have been more than enough. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-07-10
The acclaimed novelist tackles the enigmatic life and work of American fiction writer, poet, and sometime journalist Stephen Crane (1871-1900).
Much has been written about the New Jersey–born Crane, who succumbed to tuberculosis at age 28. An inventive and prolific writer, Crane is best known for The Red Badge of Courage as well as enduring short works such as “The Blue Hotel” and “The Open Boat.” Though Crane has sparked the interest of numerous biographers and novelists—e.g., Edmund White’s imaginative 2007 novel Hotel de Dream—many readers will be curious about Auster’s take. Like Crane, Auster is from Newark, and his writing is also recognized for its inventiveness. He’s passionate about Crane and aims to elevate his relevancy. “Crane is now in the hands of the specialists, the lit majors and PhD candidates and tenured professors,” writes Auster, “while the invisible army of so-called general readers, that is, people who are not academics or writers themselves, the same people who still take pleasure in reading old standbys such as Melville and Whitman, are no longer reading Crane.” Throughout, Auster conveys a highly personal, idiosyncratic perspective on his subject and the biography form itself: “You cannot curl up on a sofa and settle into a book by Crane. You have to read him sitting bolt upright in your chair.” Yet, having spent nearly three years on this project, he may have been too eager to ensure his efforts were put to good use, as he exhaustively evaluates countless sources (primary and secondary) while probing and dissecting Crane’s writing. Auster’s in-depth exploration of major works like Red Badge is engrossing, as are most of his renderings of Crane’s life experiences, such as the shipwreck that inspired “The Open Boat.” However, when Auster applies his admittedly erudite methods to Crane’s lesser work and to tangential events, the narrative suffers from bloat. Running close to 800 pages, the book would have benefitted from streamlining.
Essential for Crane scholars; less engaging for others.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173019059 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 10/26/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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