I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project
8I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project
8-
SHIP THIS ITEMTemporarily Out of Stock Online
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
When Paul Auster was asked to join NPR's Weekend All Things Considered program to tell stories, he turned the proposition on its head: he would let the stories come to him. He invited listeners to submit brief, true-life anecdotes about events that touched their lives.
And so the National Story Project was born. It was one of NPR's most popular features. The response was so overwhelming, with more than 4,000 stories submitted that Auster decided to cull the top works and make them available in a book and now this CD collection. His selections hilarious blunders, wrenching coincidences, brushes with death, miraculous encounters, improbable ironies come from people of all ages and walks of life.
This one-of-a-kind collection is a testament to the power of storytelling that offers a glimpse into the American soul. By turns poignant, nostalgic, funny, and strange, it is an audiobook to be treasured and shared for years to come.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780060874117 |
---|---|
Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
Publication date: | 09/06/2005 |
Edition description: | Abridged |
Pages: | 8 |
Product dimensions: | 5.26(w) x 5.68(h) x 1.03(d) |
About the Author
Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Hometown:
Brooklyn, New YorkDate of Birth:
February 3, 1947Place of Birth:
Newark, New JerseyEducation:
B.A., M.A., Columbia University, 1970Read an Excerpt
I told the listeners that I was looking for stories. The stories had to be true, and they had to be short, but there would be no restrictions as to subject matter or style. What interested me most, I said, were stories that defied our expectations of the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls . . . I was hoping to put together an archive of facts, a museum of American reality.
More than ever, I have come to appreciate how deeply and passionately most of us live within ourselves. Our attachments are ferocious. Our loves overwhelm us, define us, obliterate the boundaries between ourselves and others. from the Prologue
So there was Mr. Bernhauser yelling at us to get the hell out of his tree, and my father asked him what the problem was. Mr. Bernhauser took a deep breath and launched into a diatribe about thieving kids, breakers of rules, takers of fruit, and monsters in general. I guess my father had had enough, for the next thing he did was shout at Mr. Bernhauser and tell him to drop dead. Mr. Bernhauser stopped screaming, looked at my father, turned bright red, then purple, grabbed his chest, turned gray, and slowly folded to the ground. I thought my father was God. That he could yell at a miserable old man and make him die on command was beyond my comprehension. Robert Winnie Bonners Ferry, Idaho
Table of Contents
Introduction | xv | |
Animals | ||
The Chicken | 3 | |
Rascal | 4 | |
The Yellow Butterfly | 6 | |
Python | 7 | |
Pooh | 9 | |
New York Stray | 11 | |
Pork Chop | 12 | |
B | 14 | |
Two Loves | 16 | |
Rabbit Story | 17 | |
Carolina | 19 | |
Andy and the Snake | 21 | |
Blue Skies | 24 | |
Exposure | 25 | |
Vertigo | 27 | |
Objects | ||
Star and Chain | 33 | |
Radio Gypsy | 34 | |
A Bicycle Story | 36 | |
Grandmother's China | 39 | |
The Bass | 41 | |
Mother's Watch | 44 | |
Case Closed | 46 | |
The Photo | 47 | |
MS. Found in an Attic | 49 | |
Tempo Primo | 50 | |
A Lesson Not Learned | 52 | |
A Family Christmas | 54 | |
My Rocking Chair | 55 | |
The Unicycle | 57 | |
Moccasins | 59 | |
The Striped Pen | 61 | |
The Doll | 63 | |
The Videotape | 66 | |
The Purse | 68 | |
A Gift of Gold | 70 | |
Families | ||
Rainout | 75 | |
Isolation | 76 | |
Connections | 78 | |
The Wednesday Before Christmas | 80 | |
How My Father Lost His Job | 82 | |
Danny Kowalski | 85 | |
Revenge | 87 | |
Chris | 89 | |
Put Your Little Foot | 92 | |
Aunt Myrtle | 95 | |
American Odyssey | 97 | |
A Plate of Peas | 99 | |
Wash Guilt | 101 | |
Double Sadness | 103 | |
A Picture of Life | 106 | |
Margie | 109 | |
One Thousand Dollars | 111 | |
Taking Leave | 114 | |
Act of Memory | 120 | |
Slapstick | ||
Bicoastal | 125 | |
A Felt Fedora | 126 | |
Man vs. Coat | 127 | |
That's Entertainment | 128 | |
The Cake | 129 | |
Riding with Andy | 131 | |
Sophisticated Lady | 132 | |
My First Day in Priest Clothes | 133 | |
Jewish Cowboy | 134 | |
How to Win Friends and Influence People | 135 | |
Your Father Has the Hay Fever | 136 | |
Lee Ann and Holly Ann | 139 | |
Why I Am Antifur | 140 | |
Airport Story | 142 | |
Tears and Flapdoodle | 144 | |
The Club Car | 146 | |
Bronx Cheer | 148 | |
One Day in Higley | 150 | |
Strangers | ||
Dancing on Seventy-fourth Street | 153 | |
A Conversation with Bill | 154 | |
Greyhounding | 156 | |
A Little Story about New York | 159 | |
My Mistake | 162 | |
No Forwarding Address | 164 | |
The New Girl | 165 | |
The Iceman of Market Street | 168 | |
Me and the Babe | 171 | |
Lives of the Poets | 172 | |
Land of the Lost | 173 | |
Rainbow | 175 | |
Rescued by God | 177 | |
My Story | 179 | |
Small World | 183 | |
Christmas Morning, 1949 | 186 | |
Brooklyn Roberts | 188 | |
$1,380 per Night, Double Occupancy | 190 | |
A Shot in the Light | 195 | |
Snow | 202 | |
War | ||
The Fastest Man in the Union Army | 207 | |
Christmas, 1862 | 208 | |
Mount Grappa | 210 | |
Savenay | 212 | |
Fifty Years Later | 213 | |
He Was the Same Age as My Sister | 214 | |
Betting on Uncle Louie | 216 | |
The Ten-Goal Player | 218 | |
The Last Hand | 220 | |
August 1945 | 222 | |
One Autumn Afternoon | 224 | |
I Thought My Father Was God | 226 | |
The Celebration | 228 | |
Christmas, 1945 | 230 | |
A Trunk Full of Memories | 232 | |
A Walk in the Sun | 235 | |
A Shot in the Dark | 237 | |
Confessions of a Mouseketeer | 239 | |
Forever | 241 | |
Utah, 1975 | 243 | |
Love | ||
What If? | 247 | |
The Mysteries of Tortellini | 249 | |
An Involuntary Assistant | 251 | |
The Plot | 253 | |
Mathematical Aphrodisiac | 255 | |
Table for Two | 257 | |
Suzy's Choosy | 259 | |
Top Button | 260 | |
Lace Gloves | 262 | |
Susan's Greetings | 263 | |
Edith | 264 | |
Souls Fly Away | 267 | |
Awaiting Delivery | 269 | |
The Day Paul and I Flew the Kite | 270 | |
A Lesson in Love | 272 | |
Ballerina | 274 | |
The Fortune Cookie | 276 | |
Death | ||
Ashes | 279 | |
Harrisburg | 281 | |
Something to Think About | 283 | |
Good Night | 285 | |
Charlie the Tree Killer | 287 | |
Dead Man's Bluff | 288 | |
My Best Friend | 290 | |
I Didn't Know | 291 | |
Cardiac Arrests | 293 | |
Grandmother's Funeral | 294 | |
High Street | 296 | |
A Failed Execution | 297 | |
The Ghost | 299 | |
Heart Surgery | 301 | |
The Crying Place | 302 | |
Lee | 303 | |
South Dakota | 305 | |
Connecting with Phil | 308 | |
The Letter | 310 | |
Dress Rehearsal | 312 | |
The Anonymous Deciding Factor | 315 | |
Dreams | ||
4:05 a.m. | 319 | |
In the Middle of the Night | 320 | |
Blood | 321 | |
T321 Interpretation of Dreams | 322 | |
Half-Ball | 323 | |
Friday Night | 325 | |
Farrell | 327 | |
Jill | 329 | |
D-day | 330 | |
The Wall | 331 | |
Heaven | 333 | |
My Father's Dream | 335 | |
Parallel Lives | 337 | |
Anna May | 340 | |
Long Time Gone | 342 | |
Meditations | ||
Sewing Lessons | 347 | |
Sunday Drive | 350 | |
Mayonnaise Sandwiches | 354 | |
Seaside | 355 | |
After a Long Winter | 358 | |
Martini with a Twist | 359 | |
Nowhere | 362 | |
Where in the World Is Era Rose Rodosta? | 363 | |
Peter | 365 | |
Early Arithmetic | 368 | |
Reflections on a Hubcap | 371 | |
Homeless in Prescott, Arizona | 373 | |
Being There | 376 | |
An Average Sadness | 378 | |
Index of Authors | 381 |