The iconic New York novelist, Paul Auster, comments on the much debated Eric Garner case, and why he doesn’t want to give his usual pep talk about his beloved New York.

“The meanness of New York has come out again”, Auster states, referring to the tragic death of Eric Garner, who died on July 17, 2014 after being choked to death by a policeman in Staten Island, New York. Since then, protests and national discussions have broken out when the grand jury didn’t come forward with an indictment against the policeman even though the incident was caught on video.

To have America live through the incident in Ferguson just recently, and now the case of Eric Garner in New York has led to the biggest racial discussion in America for a long time.

Paul Auster (born 1947) is a highly acclaimed American novelist. He has published numerous novels such as the famous ‘The New York Trilogy’ (1987), ‘Moon Palace’ (1989), ‘Sunset Park’ (2010) and the autobiographical books ‘Winter Journal’ (2012) and ‘Report From the Interior’ (2013). He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, novelist Siri Hustvedt.

Paul Auster was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg in Brooklyn, New York, December 2014.

Camera by: Anders Urmacher
Produced and edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2014

Supported by Nordea-fonden