Paul Auster The Invention of Solitude, Faber and Faber, 1982. Pages 130, 131.
Little by little, they both began to gravitate towards one book. The story of Pinocchio. First in the Disney version and then, soon after, in the original version, with text by Collodi and illustrations by Mussino. The little boy never tired of hearing the chapter about the storm at sea, which tells of how Pinocchio finds Geppetto in the belly of the Terrible Shark.
‘’Ho Father, dear Father! Have I found you at last? Now I shall never, never leave you again!’’
Geppetto explains: ‘’The sea was rough and the whitecaps overturned the boat. Then a Terrible Shark came out of the sea and, as soon as he saw me in the water, swam quickly toward me, put out his tongue, and swallowed me as easily as if I had been a chocolate peppermint.’’
‘’And how long have you been shut away in here?’’
‘’From that day to this, two long weary years – two years, my Pinocchio … .’’
‘’And how have you lived? Where did you find the candle? And the matches to light it with – where did you get them?’’
‘’In the storm which swamped my boat, a large ship also suffered the same fate. The sailors were all saved, but the ship went right down to the bottom of the sea, and the same Terrible Shark that swallowed me, swallowed most of it … . To my own good luck, that ship was loaded with meat, preserved food, crackers, bread, bottles of wine, raisins, cheese, coffee, sugar, wax candles, and boxes of matches. With all these blessings, I have been able to live on for two whole years, but now am at the very last crumbs. Today there is nothing left in the cupboard, and this candle you see here is the last one I have.’’
‘’And then?’’ ‘’And then, my dear, we’ll find ourselves in darkness.’’
Many thanks for this expressive reading!
This will help a lot!
Have a nice day,
David, from France