Book selected: City of Glass, by Paul Auster
New title: ' '
City of Glass is about a man whose identity had changed, faded away and been lost. I shredded the original book itself - so its identity has changed and been lost because now it's only packing material. The new book is made from glass and has transparent acetate pages with text on them. The transparent materials reflect the transient nature of the main character's identity; they lack substance. Because the pages are transparent, the text muddles together when the book is closed, which reflects the protagonist's increasing obsession and madness. They can be read in isolation with the aid of the divider that is bound into the back.
The text includes direct quotes from the novel, those which best sum up the main character's mood and his changing identity. The book comes in an immaculate black box, the only label on it reads ' ' (i.e. it has no title, no identity) and is accompanied by a small explanatory leaflet featuring photographs of the original book before it was destroyed.
email : em@photosynthesize.co.uk
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