Review: The New York Trilogy

The New York Trilogy

By Paul Auster

Penguin 2006

308 pages

From my shelves

The New York Trilogy is a collection of three novellas, each a detective story in its own right. In City of Glass, a man named Quinn gets a phone call. The caller is searching for a private detective named Paul Auster. Quinn, however, is a mystery writer. After many insistent phone calls, Quinn says that he is Auster and is hired to protect a young man whose life may be in danger. Ghosts tells the story of a detective named Blue. He is hired by a man named White to watch a man named Black. Blue settles into an apartment across the street from Black and takes note of his every move....which seems to mostly consist of staring out of his window and writing. In the final novella, The Locked Room, a writer  is contacted because his childhood friend Fanshawe has disappeared. Fanshawe has made him the executor of an amazing collection of work. He is to decide if it is worthwhile and if so, have it published. In the meantime, our narrator manages to find a place in Fanshawe's family. But the question of what happened to his friend is one that consumes his thoughts and refuses to allow him any happiness. 

Auster is a complicated writer, but his work can be read at multiple levels. A reader could enjoy the stories in The New York Trilogy simply for their twists and turns and meticulous noir style. But these are much more complicated than detective stories. I feel as if I could read them again and again and find new connections each time. Of course, calling them detective stories is much too simplistic. These stories feature excellent writing and an ongoing exploration of the ways that books and the act of writing can impact our lives. Classic books like Walden and Don Quixote play pivotal parts. Quinn, Blue, and our unnamed writer are all constantly writing in an attempt to make sense of their situations. 

The title of this trilogy comes from the setting. Each story is set in New York City and Auster brings NYC to life with ease. As his characters walk down the streets and visit its establishments, you feel like you are walking with them regardless of how many times you have actually been there. The city becomes a character itself, always present and always observing the action of the stories.

My favorite part of these stories was Auster's Hitchcock-like decision to place himself within the stories. Or perhaps a version of himself? Although I won't attempt to reason out why he does this exactly, I found it great fun to compare Auster the character(s) with Auster the author and find the places where they diverge. 

The New York Trilogy is something akin to a giant puzzle for your brain. You won't figure it all out, or at least I know I didn't. Somehow this isn't a disappointment. Instead, it's an invitation to read and re-read. Going for the ride is a fascinating experience all by itself. 

Review: In the Country of Last Things

In the Country of Last Things

By Paul Auster

Penguin 1987

188 pages

From my shelves

Anna Blume is writing a letter to someone back home. She writes about the things that have happened to her since she arrived in an unnamed city, searching for her brother. It's the end of the world here, she knows no one, and she can't find her brother. People are dying in the streets, either murdered for their resources or finally giving up on a better future. Can Anna escape the city or will she join forces with another person in order to survive?

I read Auster's Oracle Night and really enjoyed its magical realism and multiple narratives. I happened to pick this one up, but it's wildly different from his other writing. This book is sparse and terrifyingly real. In this city (which seems like NYC, but is never named), almost no one has a job or a permanent place to live. People with more strength or better weapons can force you to leave your home at any moment. Citizens simply wander the streets, looking for relics of a better time that they can sell for food money. Babies haven't been born for a long time, and the population is dropping rapidly. People are truly desperate as they look for ways to end their miserable lives. Some hire an assassin to take their lives, some pay their last few dollars to be euthanized in a posh clinic, and some train for months to run until their hearts give out. The darkness and desperation of these people permeate the pages of this book. 

Anna is an interesting narrator, although as she admits, everything she says is suspect because no one knows what to believe anymore. One of the most striking things is her realization that things just cease to be - one day a street is there and then gone, a person is alive and then dead, entire words and concepts are leaving collective memory. "When you live in the city, you learn to take nothing for granted. Close your eyes for a moment, turn around to look at something else, and the thing that was before you is suddenly gone. Nothing lasts, you see, not even the thoughts inside you. And you mustn't waste your time looking for them. Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it." 

This is a good book, but it suffers from dystopian syndrome. While this book was written 25 years ago, it seems that today everyone and their mother has written a novel about the end of the world. So why should you read this novel about the end of the world instead of the thousands of others? Auster utilizes a lot of things that seem familiar to people who regularly read dystopian stories, but he does it with a level of perception and insight that makes other books pale in comparison. This is a short book, but it is one to be read slowly and carefully. In Auster's capable hands, the end of the world seems terrifyingly plausible.

Considering another book by Paul Auster? Here's my review of Oracle Night.

Review: Oracle Night

Oracle Night

By Paul Auster

Henry Holt and Company December 2003

243 pages

From the library 

So I made the ultimate book blogger mistake. I read a book, I liked it, and I thought I would take a few days to ruminate before writing my review. Well, it's three weeks later, we are moving, and I must take this library book back today. Please forgive the potentially disjointed nature of this review...

The hero of this tale is one Sidney Orr, a writer who is recovering from being ill. His transition back into the real world involves him taking meandering strolls through New York City. He happens upon a shop in which he finds a beautiful blue notebook. Hoping it will inspire him to write again, he purchases it and takes it home. Once he begins writing, he finds himself compulsively filling the pages with the story of Nick Bowen. Bowen is an editor who travels on a whim across the country with a single manuscript in his possession - Oracle Night.

Many writers attempt to juggle  multiple plots. Few do so as seamlessly as Mr. Auster. I found myself so deeply involved in each story line that I completely forgot that the other one existed until its turn came around again. This book doesn't stop at just two stories: instead it weaves past and present, fiction and reality throughout in a way requires readers to constantly pay attention. 

Auster manages to do something else that I would find irritating under different circumstances. He uses copious footnotes and they are huge. Somehow, within this novel, it works. I don't know if this is a frequent sight in Auster's novels, since this is my first. I will say that the footnotes themselves are informative and often laugh out loud funny. 

This story does an excellent job of being a book about writing and publishing without being exclusive. Auster does not hit you over the head with his philosophy on writing or inspiration. Instead, he carefully weaves it throughout his many fascinating stories. Auster doesn't take himself too seriously - this novel is fun to read, and I have to imagine it was fun for him to write. That doesn't mean he shies away from the things that matter. His characters travel through this utterly bizarre dance of life, searching for inspiration, for meaning, and for love. As in life, they often find different answers than they expected and sometimes, no answer at all.

To summarize: I really liked Oracle Night. Paul Auster will probably show up on this blog again. I need to not procrastinate forever in writing my book reviews!