Fiction, in brief

0 Comments | USA TODAY, March, 2007 | by Bob Minzesheimer; Elysa Gardner; Carol Memmott; Donna Freydkin

Travels in the Scriptorium

By Paul Auster

Henry Holt, 160 pp., $22

Paul Auster's slim novel is set in a limited terrain: one day in the life of a mysterious man known only as Mr. Blank, who's either imprisoned or hospitalized in a room for reasons he can't remember. Nor does he remember much else. Visitors come and go, offering clues. (Auster's fans will recognize their names from his previous 12 novels.) The only props are a stack of haunting photographs and several manuscripts, including one called Travels in the Scriptorium. It's an intellectual mystery for those who like writers who play mind games with their characters and readers. It's not for readers driven by plot. It's as if Auster was a painter who set out to see how much he could do on...