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juushikaTitle: The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room
Author: Paul Auster
Published: New York: Penguin Books, 1990 (1985, 1986, and 1986)
Page Count: 371 (158, 74, 139)
Total Page Count: 18,083
Text Number: 51-53
Read For: My own enjoyment
Short review: The New York Trilogy is composed of three seemingly unconnected texts, all of which involve writing, notebooks, detective cases, and New York City. In City of Glass, Quinn, a detective-story novelist, becomes a detective himself and is wrapped up in a bizarre case about language. In Ghosts, Blue is a private eye hired by Black to monitor and report on White. For a year he watches White, and Blue's own life dissolves in the process. In The Locked Room, the narrator's childhood friend Fanshawe disappears, leaving behind a family and a closet of manuscripts. As the narrator sorts thought the manuscripts for publication, he becomes increasingly obsessed with Fanshawe's life, disappearance, and death. As a trilogy, the stories are entirely unconnected save for the themes of language, writing, notebooks, and investigation that carry through them all. The end result is a slew of unsolved mysteries that, as Auster often does, tantalize and lead on the reader without providing satisfying conclusions. The ideas are interesting, the texts read quickly, but they are ultimately unsatisfying, the questions are never answered, and they promise more than they ever deliver.
City of Glass was the first text by Auster that I ever encountered, and I picked up the "sequels" because I was desperate to know where his startling, fascinating story was supposed to end up. However, The New York Trilogy offers no answers, but rather opens up new questions and rehashes familiar ideas in a series of unconnected-but-similar plots. The ideas are fascinating: Auster studies the uses of language, words, and writing, he dabbles a bit in identity and one's life's work and purpose, and he wraps all of his theories in mysteries and detective stories. The texts read quickly and keep you on your toes, looking for clues, interested in the plot progression.
However, the book isn't nearly as interesting the second time around, and that says something about the mysteries themselves: unlike a good detective novel, the plots in Auster's texts never reach their conclusion. There are a plethora of clues and ideas, but ultimately the clues lead no where: there is no conclusion. As a result, the end of each text is frustrating, no matter how successful the body of it was, and rereads are tainted from the beginning with the knowledge that the text will never resolve itself.
If you are willing to explore Auster's ideas and deal with an unsatisfactory conclusion, then I recommend this series. Up until the end, each installment is interesting, a little grotesque, unique, even ingenious. However, if you're looking for a solid plot then I advise you to pass over the series and instead find a writer who not only builds up but also delivers. Auster fails to do that—a purposeful choice, no doubt, but frustrating nonetheless.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Paul Auster
Published: New York: Penguin Books, 1990 (1985, 1986, and 1986)
Page Count: 371 (158, 74, 139)
Total Page Count: 18,083
Text Number: 51-53
Read For: My own enjoyment
Short review: The New York Trilogy is composed of three seemingly unconnected texts, all of which involve writing, notebooks, detective cases, and New York City. In City of Glass, Quinn, a detective-story novelist, becomes a detective himself and is wrapped up in a bizarre case about language. In Ghosts, Blue is a private eye hired by Black to monitor and report on White. For a year he watches White, and Blue's own life dissolves in the process. In The Locked Room, the narrator's childhood friend Fanshawe disappears, leaving behind a family and a closet of manuscripts. As the narrator sorts thought the manuscripts for publication, he becomes increasingly obsessed with Fanshawe's life, disappearance, and death. As a trilogy, the stories are entirely unconnected save for the themes of language, writing, notebooks, and investigation that carry through them all. The end result is a slew of unsolved mysteries that, as Auster often does, tantalize and lead on the reader without providing satisfying conclusions. The ideas are interesting, the texts read quickly, but they are ultimately unsatisfying, the questions are never answered, and they promise more than they ever deliver.
City of Glass was the first text by Auster that I ever encountered, and I picked up the "sequels" because I was desperate to know where his startling, fascinating story was supposed to end up. However, The New York Trilogy offers no answers, but rather opens up new questions and rehashes familiar ideas in a series of unconnected-but-similar plots. The ideas are fascinating: Auster studies the uses of language, words, and writing, he dabbles a bit in identity and one's life's work and purpose, and he wraps all of his theories in mysteries and detective stories. The texts read quickly and keep you on your toes, looking for clues, interested in the plot progression.
However, the book isn't nearly as interesting the second time around, and that says something about the mysteries themselves: unlike a good detective novel, the plots in Auster's texts never reach their conclusion. There are a plethora of clues and ideas, but ultimately the clues lead no where: there is no conclusion. As a result, the end of each text is frustrating, no matter how successful the body of it was, and rereads are tainted from the beginning with the knowledge that the text will never resolve itself.
If you are willing to explore Auster's ideas and deal with an unsatisfactory conclusion, then I recommend this series. Up until the end, each installment is interesting, a little grotesque, unique, even ingenious. However, if you're looking for a solid plot then I advise you to pass over the series and instead find a writer who not only builds up but also delivers. Auster fails to do that—a purposeful choice, no doubt, but frustrating nonetheless.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
