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Summary: A writer in search of himself
Review: A detective story only superficially. A thoughtful, interesting mental puzzle, not for the timid or casual reader. If it borrows from the traditional detective genre it is from Chandler or Thompson, a search by a lost soul among lost souls, with little hope or intention of being found. Auster provides the clue to where to begin to understand his book - look to Cervantes' Don Quixote. New York Trilogy is fundamentally a writer writing about writing, the creative process, losing one's self in order to create another, separate self. Auster's twist is that the journey back "home" to one's self, to an original identity (if such a thing does indeed even exist at the end of the process) is uncertain. Conrad pioneered the psychoanalytical approach to literature, the supreme struggle within one's own mind; cowardice and bravery, truth and fiction, overpowering the external, physical actions. Auster takes this approach to the extreme. Everything that has meaning exists in the psychological. What exists in the physical is at best a reflection of the mind's perceptions, an illusory substrate for the creative process (quantum physicists could relate to this - the physical has meaning only in relation to the observer, directly effected by the process of observation). It is also a terrifying confession to admit to a loss of one's own identity, to intentionally lose one's self in order to accomplish a specific end (the creation of a work of literature). To be, for an indefinite period, without a name, a home, a life to call your own. In the end it is, as Auster simply states, a question in response to a question. The answer is left for the reader to decide, it must come from the reader's own mind, if the reader is up to the challenge
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Summary: The best place to start with Auster...
Review: Auster is a word detective -- clever, sometimes too clever -- but he's at his most witty and inventive in this early trilogy. This is the set of books that turned me on to Auster, and led me to Book of Illusions, Oracle Night and In the Country of Last Things. Challenging reading in a highly entertaining manner. His writings reinforce my belief in the power of words, and bring to mind -- for various reasons -- writers such as Nabakov, Fowles and Jack O'Connell. A genuine original. The fact that I can't recall the specifics of this trilogy hardly matters. What I remember is the feeling of reading something new, or rather something old written in a new way. Hearing Auster's name always brings to mind the term "linguistics," which to me is the shortest yet most descriptive term for characterizing both Auster the writer and his collective body of work.
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Summary: a Columbia degree gone postmodern
Review: Auster's work can be divided into two periods: his novels and meditations before "Timbuktu" and his novels after "Timbuktu". Personally, i think that Auster's later works don't live up to the ambitions and brilliance exhibited in his earlier novels.
"The New York Trilogy" is Auster's first published novel. Its content reflects a literary mind that is to be reckoned with. Auster weaves together various genres (particularly, elements of the detective novel) with complex narrative techniques and postmodern formulas.
The three novellas becomes a literary search for a lost object, a person, the self. We constantly encounter the cracks and voids consistent with our culture. mostly, we end up with nothing substantial, but we can't let go of the feeling that we have gained something.
Although Auster draws from American and non-American classics the "New York Trilogy" remains a postmodern work. there are echoes of Cervantes, Hawthorne, the 'Bible', Freudian doubleness, Oedipus, etc...
This book contains so much. It is as if Auster put in the entire repertoire of a Columbia education in literature into this novel. It will not go away for a long time afetr you have finished it.
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Summary: Review of Paul Asters " city of glass"
Review: Hi I'm a german highschool studend. In class we were supposed to read "the city of glass". Today we all write a review on it.
Honestly it is not to much of a story for me. The fact I liked, was the fall of the protagonist. After all it is just an everyday story about the facts of life. I feel people deerve to be what they are, not more not less. And that's what happens. After getting a job the detectiv gets lost in his task. Eventually he loses almost evrything he ownes but what he always thought he would be. Altough one could be of the opinion that everything in our lifes is pales and therefor chance does not exist the reader is only confronted with chance. In the end you feel that you really should not do anyhing, just because chance can probably do better than you.
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Summary: review of "City of Glass"
Review: I like to give you a little impression of my opinion about Paul Auster's book "City of Glass". We were supposed to read it in the 13.form as a part of our main topic "detective stories".
It took us some time but it was more interesting than the other books we read in this year(Macbeth, Of Mice and Men). When you have read this book you get a closer look into the world's different identities and those of its citizen.
In Paul Auster's clever piece of work "City of Glass" fiction and reality is mixed up. The theme of chance is like in other works of Auster seen as the main topic of the story. Daniel Quinn, normally an author, who lost his family, is mixed up with Paul Auster and so starts to become a detective. During the story it is not obvious which identity the protagonist uses and who he will be next. The order of actions is unpredictable.
Paul Auster created a novel which is extraordinary and which will be kept in mind by every one who read it.
I would everybody give the advice to read this book because of its postmodernist style which suits very well to our time.
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Summary: Paul Auster's "City of Glass" - A review
Review: In my advanced english course at school we were supposed to read Paul Auster's "City of Glass" the first of Paul Auster's detective stories from his book "The New York Triology". With no expectations i began to read the story about Daniel Quinn while thinking that it certainly would be one of those boring books we are often to read in school. But my first impression was wrong. With every line i read the story got more and more interesting. Paul Auster achieves it to build up an exciting story in which Daniel Quinn, a detective story writer, recieves a phone call with whom the story turns into a curios way. The main protagonist has to protect a man whose psychotic father wants to kill him. Quinn loses track of the mystery so that he loses everything he has. Almost the whole story is based on chance and gets interesting by curving the story of Don Quiote or the history of the Paradies. Paul Auster also succeeds in connecting themes like "identities","isolaton","hunger" and "poverty".
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Summary: A highly original and brilliant post-modern thriller
Review: Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy" consists of three seemingly unconnected novellas which though complete in themselves should be read as integral parts of a total literary experience. Unlike a conventional mystery thriller which focuses on the "who done what to whom" aspect of the storyline, Auster turns the table on the reader by taking him on a journey of self discovery past a hall of mirrors which reflect and expose by stages the psyche of the pursuer, not the pursued. The effect is so spooky you want to scream in your head as you encounter the next slice of reality about yourself. Readers familiar with the music of rock star David Bowie will find the reading experience similar to that of listening to his 1977 album "Low", a dark and creepy introspective piece of work. All three vignettes deal with questions of identity, reality and illusion, the meaning of words and language and explores the fine line between commitment and obsession. Both Quinn in "City of Glass" and the anonymous narrator in "Ghosts" are trapped in their own circumstances and forced to make human choices which lead to their mental breakdown. There is also a noir-like cinematic feel about the trilogy that just begs for this masterful piece of work to be brought to the screen. Auster has produced a highly original post-modern thriller that will mesmerise and enthrall readers for years to come. It is simply superb and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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Summary: Two out of three ain't bad
Review: Paul Auster's 'New York Trilogy' is widely hailed as a great piece of modern fiction.I agree. As a whole, it's fantastic. Reading each individual book, you'd never really figure out the connection between them all; which is almost a bonus in some ways. It leaves each one as a startling and enigmatic mark in your mind for days. However, the first two, especially City of Glass, are wonderful.
The third and last, the Locked Room, leaves a little to be desired. As a "tie up" for the first two, I find that the story and conclusion (one in the same) leave something to be desired and, while it does bear the mark of Auster's type of ending... it didn't feel to me like it was the best possible ending.
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Summary: Dark, Brilliant, Intense
Review: Paul Auster's New York Trilogy is one of the finest books I've read in a long while; it's riveting. Auster is one of my favorite writers, and for those new to his writing The New York Trilogy is a good place to start. Essentially, these three novellas are detective stories with film-noir atmosphere, but the themes Auster tackles go beyond those of your standard spy novel. There are questions of identity, power dynamics, the relationship between the writer and his characters, the relationship between a detective and his suspects. Additionally, this is a wonderfully bookish book; references to Lewis Carroll, Cervantes, etc. abound. There are books within books within books; all the lines that separate reality from writing from fictional reality from fictional writing are blurred, turning the reader inside-out and upside-down as he or she reads. Most importantly, these novellas are highly engaging and evocative. Though Auster's writing has been described as cold and austere, these are compelling stories; it is easy succumb to the swift, gripping narrative. A truly lovely collection, very conceptual, breaks all the rules and wriggles its way out of any genre to which one might try to confine it.
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Summary: Incredible Meta-fiction!!!!!
Review: Taken cumulatively, Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy" is one of the most amazing books I've read in a long time. No matter how much of a seasoned reader you are, these three novellas make you look at the very act of reading in a completely new light.
Perhaps the most incredible feat accomplished here is how the thematic material echoes throughout each page and between novellas. Everything from detective conventions to names to literary authors to images weave and flow throughout these works changing and gaining in import each time like a Bachian theme and variations.
Even when things don't seem to go as smoothly, the results are thought-provoking. For instance, I was a bit put off by the end of "City of Glass." However, this feeling of dissatisfaction in light of such a metafictional text made me question myself - why was I dissatisfied? I discovered that I expect some sort of minimal optimism at the conclusion of texts - even if it's a tragedy, at least it should in its negation show something life-affirming. This is eventually accomplished even for the end of "Glass" once one views it in context of the whole trilogy, but even if it hadn't been, forcing me to confront my own expectations has been invaluable!
These are works in which every word has been carefully judged yet nothing seems ponderous or overstated. The language is simple, direct and incredibly clear and concise. One comes across a book like this rarely - do yourself a favor and devour it!
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