THE AUTOGRAPH MAN by Zadie Smith 6 audio cds.

THE AUTOGRAPH MAN by Zadie Smith Audio 6cds listened to only once bought new for $49.95 Alex-Li Tandem, a Chinese-Jewish Autograph Dealer from London searching for autographs leads him to an Autograph Concention. An underlying theme in the book are the autographs real or not? Alex's obsession with autographs makes sense in a couple of ways, I think. Autographs are a surviving trace of vanished individuals -- they do not succumb to time and disappear as the individuals who wrote them do, and so serve -- I ought to say, seem to serve -- as a kind of lingering life for the dead. Holding on to autographs is a way of not letting go of the dead, . Autographs are also unique to individuals, or we hope they are -- and thus in a world where all communication seems reduced to infinitely duplicable "international gestures" seem to promise that such a thing as authentic selfhood nonetheless exists. Forgery is not just a way of making a bundle, but an undermining of the cherished idea that I am I and you are you. Combined postage of two items from my list will only cost $5.50 for both.