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Title: The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, the Locked Room (Contemporary American Fiction Series) by Paul Auster ISBN: 0-14-013155-8 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.52 (66 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Auster¿s darkly delightful, experimental detective series
Comment: Paul Auster burst onto the literary scene in the mid-eighties with The New York Trilogy, a series of experimental detective novels (or should I say detective-style novels as only one features an actual detective). In the first installment, City of Glass, a wrong number draws a hermetic novelist into mentally disturbed man's conflict with his religious fanatic father. In the next, Ghosts, a private eye named Blue is hired by a man called White to spy on the isolated Black. In the final episode, The Locked Room, a literary critic searches for a childhood friend who has disappeared, leaving behind a wife and child and a wealth of extraordinary, unpublished fiction. After each tale's somewhat cryptic ending, the truths behind the shady events are still mostly obscure and so is the piece's general meaning. Both of which are especially disappointing given the amount of suspense Auster builds-up. The author is often accused of being clever for clever's sake and is easy to understand why. But if those are your concerns, you are missing what makes these books truly special: atmosphere. Mixing detective noir with postmodern surrealism, Auster paints eerie netherlands that make the reader readily accept the most bizarre circumstances in his fiction. Everything the New York Trilogy lacks in substance, it more than makes up for in style.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Puzzle of a Book About Mysteries
Comment: Unfortunately, Paul Auster's unique work, "The New York Trilogy," is one of those books usually purchased because of word-of-mouth advertising than off-the-shelf interest. The problem with people telling you about this little collection is that you often build a preconceived notion about what to expect from the work, either good, bad, or strange. If a book ever existed that should be read without any prior knowledge of it whatsoever, The New York Trilogy is it.
The book - really a collection of three novellas, originally published separately - follows the adventures of three different men on three different pulp-novel-style investigative cases. To give away more plot does the reader a disservice; after all, while one can describe a series of exhibits on a carnival's "Freak Row," recreating the emotions involved in walking down that alley defies the conventions of language. Language, and its employ, surrounds many of the events in these books. Auster plays with the reader, offering a mystery as engaging as the ones his characters attempt to solve. He scattered the clues throughout the book, but the responsibility of creating meaning from them - and, by extension, from the book - lies solely with the reader.
If that seems unfair of Auster to expect of a reader, and too intellectual and highbrow for people interested in a casual experience, "The New York Trilogy" contains plenty more to recommend it. The mystery of meaning (provided the postmodernists and their odiously pretentious "scholar"-lapdogs haven't ruined such fun things for you) is an optional part of enjoying this work, and those looking for a great read should not be turned away. Vivid, haunting descriptions of The City (by all means, read this book in New York if you have the chance) mingle with stories that show an obvious awe and respect for film-noir and pulp detective stories. Hopelessness, sorrow, happiness, luck and chance, double-crossing, and redemption all combine to form three solid stories that tickle the mind. One gets the impression that Auster wrote this work almost as a tribute to the noir-pulp style, while attempting to offer the reader another mystery, should the reader desire such a challenge.
The seeded subcontext in the book offers quite the literary experiment, and like all experiments it doesn't always work. It usually lies in the background, suggesting its presence, but occasionally comes forward and distracts - and detracts - from the main work itself. In addition, the content matter and strange circumstances might put off those with preconceived ideas (thus, my attempt to say much while revealing little). Auster's "Trilogy" certainly merits a read, although it may not immediately appeal to all sensibilities.
Rating: 4
Summary: Two out of three ain't bad
Comment: 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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Title: Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140106286 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Book of Illusions: A Novel by Paul Auster ISBN: 0312421818 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Leviathan (Contemporary American Fiction) by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140178139 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Moon Palace by Paul Auster ISBN: 0140115854 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Timbuktu : A Novel by Paul Auster ISBN: 0312263996 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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