Invisible by Paul Auster

This is a stunning novel. I was hesitant to read it because the last book I read of his was "The New York Trilogy', which was filled with twists and turns of plot that I found irritating rather than clever. A mystery that wasn't. This is not that book. Both books are very well written, and psychologically astute. The author knows the deep dark secrets that don't exactly make people tick, but are demons that they struggle with and occasionally lose the battle.
'Invisible' is a book about a man's love relationships. How they happen. Why they happen. This is not a 'boy meets girl' story. It is the story of a man who has trouble with intimacy. Big trouble. So much trouble that he in fact gets into trouble with intimacy and once that happens, he doesn't know how to get out of it--his relationship with his sister defines his life.
The siblings share a trauma--they have lost a brother--the ways that childhood trauma break you, make adulthood a bigger struggle right from the beginning, is something that we are vaguely aware of, but rarely do anything to prevent. Rather than seek help for themselves, these siblings turn to each other and while the sister seems to emerge being able to deny it ever happened, the brother is permanently damaged. The book is fantastic--it is a breeze to read, you roll right through it and at then end, you are left with a "wow" feeling. Can you believe what you just read? And then you can keep on thinking about it afterward. Spectacular and special in a way that in unusual for fiction to be.