Reading 1001 discussion

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Read July/August 2017 ⭐⭐⭐(⭐)

This was my first encounter with Paul Auster. The New York Trilogy is comprised of three loosely connected stories (City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room). What was it about? I honestly got no idea. The New York Trilogy is an incredible anthology of mystery stories, written with an evocative voice and a completely original style.

It was both weird and pretty fantastic about identity. Who I am? Is it possible to become someone else by studying them? You as a reader become the investigator. You'll get clues, but without the guarantee you'll get all of them. You'll get answers, but you'll have to find more by yourself. The book made my tiny brain spin, but in a good way. It made me intrigued and curious, and left me confused. It also excited me, and was full of elegant formulations. But I am not really sure what it was all about.

I think I need to re-read it at some point, to see if I catch more of the clues along the way. I definitely think the book is worthy of the list.

I'd love to re-read this one soon. I read it a while ago and remember feeling like I had missed a lot of information.

Jen wrote: "I'd love to re-read this one soon. I read it a while ago and remember feeling like I had missed a lot of information."

I'm (Jen, logged in as shelf member) rereading it and it's like reading it for the first time. I don't remember anything about it :)

Read 2018
Post modern detective stories. Paul Auster's trilogy received the most votes in an informal poll of 79 bloggers representing the best of American fiction in the last 25 years (see The New Canon, The Best Fiction since 1985). It has international fame as well and won the Prix France Culture de Litterateur Esrangere. This is three interlocking short stories with the characters dealing with postmodern issues regarding writing. But it is also a detective story, sort of. We have a writer of detective stories who takes on the personna of a real private investigator that came about by a wrong number phone call asking for Paul Auster in the first story City of Glass. (my favorite). In this one, even Paul Auster's wife "Siri" and her Minnesota/Norwegian roots and his son Danial show up in the story. The middle story is ghosts and we have a Mr Black, Mr. White, and a Mr Blue. This again examines writing but is it also looking at identify and morals? Black and white being the stance that it is either good or bad and Black and blue, does this portray the self identity taking a beating? Throughout there is a lot of dialogue about writing, the process of writing and also reading. The trilogy has several references to American authors. In 'City of Glass' is William Wilson, also the name of an Edgar Allan Poe short story about doppelgängers. In 'The Locked Room', the narrator says his name is Herman Melville, and Fanshawe mimics the opening line of 'Moby Dick' in his letter starting "Call me Redburn." Thoreau's 'Walden' is a major part of 'Ghosts' and Thoreau mentioned in 'City of Glass', and Dennis Walden in 'The Locked Room'.

Rating: 4 stars


Auster has really grown on me. His books are very different from one another, in my opinion. This book contained three interrelated novellas . All three novellas are set in New York, but have different time periods. All three involve detectives and authors. The main characters find themselves in situations they can't get out of.

The book seems like more of a nod to detective fiction, than actual detective fiction, since it has a slightly different slant and focus. Auster inserts himself into the book, which he is known to do. He also makes a lot of nods toward other works of classic fiction.