He finds it extraordinary that on some mornings, just after he has woken up, as he bends down to tie his shoes, he is flooded with a happiness so intense, a happiness so naturally and harmoniously at one with the world, that he can feel himself alive in the present, a present that surrounds him and permeates him, that breaks through him with the sudden, overwhelming knowledge that he is alive. And the happiness he discovers in himself at that moment is extraordinary.

M. The common factor of both ideas is the question of the meaning of symbols for human beings. Paul Auster is heard reading from his books Hand to Mouth and The Red Notebook either as straight recitation integrated with other sounds as if in a radio play or passed through an electronically realized string resonator so that the low tones interact with those of a string ensemble.

Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3 1947) is an American author whose writing blends absurdism existentialism crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy (1987) Moon Palace (1989) The Music of Chance (1990) The Book of Illusions (2002) and The Brooklyn Follies (2005).