• November 9, 2010, 11:00 AM ET

Paul Auster On Book Reviews: ‘I’ve Learned Not to Look’

By Steven Kurutz

Everett Collection

Paul Auster just published his sixteenth novel, “Sunset Park,” which makes him something of an expert on the book publishing process. When we spoke to the Brooklyn-based author recently, we asked if one’s sixteenth book has a different feeling than, say, the fifth. Not really, Auster said. He still cycles through the same post-book emotions: quasi-depression, anxiety, mild dread at stepping away from the writing process in order to promote the book.
One that that has changed, though, is Auster’s relationship to critics. “I’ve learned not to look at reviews,” he said. “Early on I did, I was always curious. You tend to feel very hurt when people attack you and feel indifferent when you get praise. You think, ‘Of course they like it. They should like it.’ I’ve learned that reading one of these attacks is like drinking poison; it goes into your system. You’ll remember the nasty phrases. You can’t get them out of your head. And that doesn’t do you any good as a human being at all to walk around with that sense of rancor or frustration. What can you do?”
The early reviews for “Sunset Park” are mixed, not that Auster has read them.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/11/09/paul-auster-on-book-reviews-i%e2%80%99ve-learned-not-to-look/