Cuando al tratarse de decoración se dice que menos es mas, pienso que en los libros también se puede aplicar, después de todo las palabras adornan aquello que queremos contar, y este cuentito tiene las palabras justas para que sea bello en su sencillez.

Cuento corto que se lee en un suspiro y sin pestañear. Tiene ese encanto de los cuentos navideños, pero sin llegar a la sensiblería de historias más profundas y dramáticas. Desde un trasfondo cotidiano, elogia el arte de contar historias.

El relato es muy muy breve, pero puede dividirse en dos partes. Si bien la primera me ha parecido casi poética y nos enseña a mirar la vida con otros ojos, la segunda parte tiene cierto regusto a fábula y es propiamente el cuento navideño.

El cuento de Navidad de Auggie Wren empieza con la premisa de tener que escribir un cuento de Navidad, pero no saber por dónde ir. Es el personaje Auggie Wren quien le ofrece al autor una historia que contar.
"Comprendí que Auggie estaba fotografiando el tiempo, el tiempo natural y el tiempo humano, y lo hacía instalándose en una minúscula esquina del mundo y deseando que fuera suya, montando guardia en el espacio que había elegido para sí"
El cuento se puede dividir en dos momentos. El primero, que nos presenta a Auggie Wren y su actividad diaria: tomar fotografías a un pequeño rincón, donde captura tiempo y espacio, pero más que eso, le permite asumir un lugar, su lugar, estar atento y presente para percibir aquello que muchas pasa desapercibido.

"Pero por otra parte, ¿cómo podía nadie proponerse escribir un cuento de Navidad que no fuera sentimental?"
La segunda parte propone un giro presentando la historia navideña en sí: cómo Auggie obtuvo su cámara fotográfica, que no fue precisamente un regalo... Pero que sí involucra regalar, compartir, dar, precisamente en Navidad. Ese contacto que buscamos en fechas especiales.

ოგი რენი ჩემს ცხოვრებაში ერთმა კარგმა ადამიანმა შემოიყვანა, მალევე ოგიც და ეგ კარგი ადამიანიც, ჩემთვის მნიშვნელოვან მოვლენად იქცნენ. არცერთი შობა ოგის გარეშე.

1/1/2021
مجموعة قصصية من الأدب الأمريكي المعاصر تجمع بين بول اوستر و ايديا ديفيس

جميلة

My first review for the Christmas Spirit Challenge is going to be a mini-review for a mini book. Michelle, our lovely hostess, sent me Paul Auster's Auggie Wren's Christmas Story as part of my prize package for a previous year's challenge. It is a slim volume with a lovely Christmas fable--without Santa or reindeer or snowmen or Christmas trees. The most holiday-type thing in the story is a very unconventional Christmas dinner. How can this be?

It is a tale about a writer who has been asked by The New York Times to write a Christmas story to be featured on Christmas morning. But he doesn't want to write one of those mushy, gushy, sentimental stories that serve as "wishfulfillment dreams, fairy tales for adults." He wants an unsentimental Christmas story even though he knows it is "a contradiction in terms, an impossibility, an out-and-out conundrum. One might as just as well try to imagine a racehorse without legs, or a sparrow without wings." So, the next time he ventures into his favorite cigar store, he tells his friend Auggie Wren his troubles. Auggie tells him that if he'll buy him lunch, he'll tell him the best Christmas story ever. The best because it's absolutely true.

This is Auggie's story about a shoplifter, a lost wallet, a blind grandmother, and that unconventional Christmas dinner that I mentioned above. It is a fable that encourages us to question whether a lie can ever serve as the truth and who is the giver and who is the taker. Auggie learns a little something about himself and what Christmas might really mean. ★★★★ for a surprisingly lovely unconventional Christmas story.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

A thought-provoking Christmas story that comes with beautiful illustrations.

“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.”

Paul Auster has written a contemporary Christmas story that should not be missed. In spite of the quote above, it leaves the reader wondering how much of it is true. Augie Wren is a great character with a warm heart and a sparkle in his eyes.

This wasn't a book, it's a short newspaper article put into book form surrounded by art that I couldn't understand. Weird little thing.

I was killing time at the library today and this little book captured my attention so I grabbed it and read it while waiting for my bus. February is perhaps not the best time for this christmasy short story but I enjoyed it anyway! Will be looking for something a bit longer by this author.

This seems like such a straightforward little tale. A writer is asked to write a Christmas story for a New York newspaper, but he has no idea what to write. His friend offers to tell him a true story about himself and what ensues is a story that pulled me in immediately. It pulls in the writer as well…and right to the last paragraph it just seems like a sweet Christmas tale. But then it ends and you are left with a million questions about right and wrong, time and its passage, truth and lies. It is, in fact, a very unChristmasy Christmas story, but it leaves you with the same kind of feeling you experience when reading O’Henry, and that is high praise indeed.

Oh, and the illustrations are magnificent. I am enjoying the art in my Christmas reads this year as much as the text.