Rating: 
Summary: Genius
Review: This is unquestionably the most surreal and intricately written novel I have ever read. First off, the prose is constructed, not written. It reads as if each word was carefully fit into each sentence, making sure that it was the perfect word to use for that particular place in the novel. Then there is the symbolism and numerous hidden themes, which have a dizzying type of effect as you uncover them. This is the type of book that you want to re-read as soon as you finish out of fear that you may have missed something important. The way the three stories unfold around each other is proof of uncommon literary genius. These three novellas are chuck full of unnerving suspense with the best part being that not all the questioned are answered in the end. Much like David Lynch, Auster understands the importance of preserving a mystery's integrity. Absolutely my favorite novel of all time. I recommend this trilogy to anyone interested in literature in any way. The purest form of talent I have had the pleasure of reading to date.
Rating:
Summary: A book people should write several times.
Review: Paul Auster has created a brilliant self-reflexive look on not only writing, not only detective work, but on the very act of reading. You find, after reading the book, that you (as the reader) are almost as much the writer as Paul Auster is. This happens early in the book, with the introduction of the "real" Paul Auster character, coupled with the person who "really" isn't Paul Auster, but one who assumes the identity, indeed even the character of Paul Auster in order to become the detective, in order to indeed become Paul Auster himself. I eerily saw myself doing the same thing, following the characters on their roads towards madness and self-delusion (the delusion, ironically, is the very mode through which the reader and the characters find knowledge in the book). The line separating character from reader, writer from reader, sanity from madness becomes awfully blurred. He becomes I, you becomes I, Paul Auster becomes I, and the "I" (supposedly you) gets subsumed under characters who don't really seem like you, but who BECOME you. Its like looking into a mirror and seeing someone who really isn't you, or who may not look like you, but slowly realizing that this person is indeed you, that whatever this person, this character, whatever grotesque features this individual may posses, you ACTUALLY posses. As you look into the mirror, as you see "Blue" or "Quinn" or "Fanshawe" or the narrator of the final story, you finally realize, with awe and terror, that these people are actually YOU, that they come to encompass the parts of yourself that you had forgotten, or chose to repress. Without attempting to become too theoretical (because I do understand and feel the revulsion of people who say that Paul Auster is "illustrating" Derridean principles and blah blah blah), this book reminds me of Freud's essay on "the Uncanny". Perhaps _The New York Trilogy_ is the most brilliant, most obvious, most horrifyingly familiar experience of the uncanny, both in its material and in its effect on the reader, availiable in fiction today. For as the reader starts entering into these pages, into the locked room of Fanshawe or Auster, they rarely find themselves able to leave it with satisfaction. This book is a trap! I say that as a warning and as an invitation. By all means, start reading this book. But don't expect to ever leave its confines, don't expect to ever have the ability to simply "finish" the book. I mean, I've looked at all the pages, but I could hardly say that I've read it.
Rating:
Summary: Red notebook
Review: What a great book! Don't you think the cover should have been a Red spiral three-ring notebook? It's amazing how Auster is able to use similar themes, character names and objects in all of the three stories without having them lose their individual significance and characteristic within each separate story. This is the first Paul Auster book I have read and if his other books are anything like this one I am excited about what I'm in store for. This is a great book to read while commuting on the LIRR or subway into Manhattan. Enjoy! Henry Dark
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant modern fiction
Review: I found "The New York Trilogy" excellent. It was my first reading of an Auster work - and it was quite simply stunning. The first thing that impressed me was his prose style; it's easy to see that he also is a poet for some of the passges in this trilogy are simply products of an aesthetically dazzling mind! But Auster is more than a poet on prose, he is also - and I know it sounds like a cliché! - profound in his probings of the human condition; I'd say the central themes of these novels are man's ghostlike existence, the nature of the artist and illusion/reality. This is a highly important contemporary novelist - and I recommend him to everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: The Woman as Saviour
Review: Whatever you might think that the anti-detective novel The New York Trilogy is about it ultimately boils down to love. The love of writing, the problem of authorship and last but not the least the love of a woman. In the three novels the narrator shifts in character. First he is Quinn working under the alias of his fictional character Work who presumes the identity of Paul Auster the detective who in turn .. I think you get my drift. What do all theese characters have in common? They are all trying to describe the world in words. They all fale it seems. All but one, the last character in the last book, the nameless narrator succedes. Why? Because of the love of a woman (Sophie - the "madonna") who teaches the authors alias that writing is secondary to love, the keystone in life.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Perfection
Review: This is by far the most complex, bizzare, and intricatly written novel i have ever read. The symbolism and hidden themes are uncountable. I find it hard to believe that these three works were ever published seperatly. The way they feed off each other is pure literary genius. Never has a trilogy provided more mystery and unnerving suspense. Absolutley my favorite novel of all time. This story should be read and studied by anyone interested in literature in any way. The purest form of talent I have seen to date.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Novellas that produces an essential Auster book
Review: This three, inconnected short stories blend together to conform, with Music of Chance, Auster's best work. The description of protagonists that then come to life and the dark mistery that evolves this book, creates a tense, dull, but yet trapping atmosphere, that will takes you directly to Auster's cosmogony. Entertainment, yet profound and somewhat disturbing, this is a book you'll througlhy enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Eh. Good stories but they felt like a cop out.
Review: His writing is amazing, his characters are fascinating... the first story really held me, even though it felt at times like I was reading a school report on the history of language instead of a short story. And then came the end of the first story, which--not in that the story is unfinished, but the way it's written--left me wholly unsatisfied. i plowed through to the next one, and was again fascinated by the character and the story--again to find the ending unsatisfying. i skimmed the last story. i'd recommend it if you have a lot of time on your hands or are really intrigued by character studies (although the three protaganists seemed to have a similar voice, after a while).
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating and exhilerating...
Review: A professor of mine once said that she wasn't going to take the easy route and describe this book as a cross between Raymond Chandler and Albert Camus. Well, in not doing so, she did so anyway. The comparison stuck. And it works too. Imagine a detective story where you never find out who the killer is, and it doesn't matter! It's so good. Auster packs his books with weighty ideas, while leaving the prose dry and sparse. I think it works. Let the reader breathe a bit, and maybe they'll wrap their head around the story tight enough to get hooked in. It is at this point, of course that Auster reveals that there really is no story, and you've just contemplated the true meaning of human existence. Okay, not really. But at least he's got you thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Original and highly stylised, but what of it?
Review: One can't deny the extreme originality of Paul Auster's stories. In each of them, he ostensibly challenges the blurred definition of reality and the boundary between that and what the mind tells us. The irrational quality that permeates "City of Glass" defies all comprehension. I found this story the toughest to get through. Not by its complexity but by the monotony that eventually sets in the second half and by the ambiguous ending. Quinn is by far one the most mind-boggling and ridiculous characters in contemporary fiction. Likewise, the characters in "Ghosts" are incredulous but it is redeemed by the interesting premise of the watcher being watched and how the tables are eventually turned. The most accessible is the final tale "The Locked Room". The writer is constantly haunted by the memory of his best friend whose life he has inadvertantly taken over and is finally driven to discover the truth in a painful journey into the friend's past. Besides the depth of characterisation, it also cleverly incorporates the themes in the other stories (both expressed and implied).
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