The most shoplifted novelist in New York

"[Paul] Auster's 11 novels, three screenplays and three autobiographies have made him the literary godfather of Brooklyn," writes Craig Offman, who sat down for lunch with Auster last year.

Offman also claims that Auster's "literature has already achieved one crucial measure of popularity: along with William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski, he is reportedly the most shoplifted novelist in New York."

Since Offman's interview, Auster has published The Brooklyn Follies.

Click here to read more about: Auster's not-so-hot opinion of Borges; his friends Peter Carey and Salman Rushdie; his take on his wife's novel ("a masterpiece"); his son, who in 1998 pleaded guilty to lifting $3,000 from the body of a dead drug dealer in a nightclub; and his advice on making a movie ("You just have to keep your movie as inexpensive as possible.").

Phillip Lopate's literary guide to Brooklyn does not mention Auster but Cary Federman's take on The Great New York City Novel does.

The philosopher Colin McGinn, ruminating on Auster's Timbuktu, suggests we might think about the good life differently if we considered it from the point of view of a dog.

--Marshal Zeringue