City of Glass (New York Trilogy) [Paperback]

Paul Auster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1987 | Series: New York Trilogy (Book 1)

Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, City of Glass inaugurates an intriguing New York Trilogy of novels that The Washington Post Book World has classified as "post-existentialist private eye...It's as if Kafka has gotten hooked on the gumshoe game and penned his own ever-spiraling version." As a result of a strange phone call in the middle of the night, Quinn, a writer of detective stories, becomes enmeshed in a case more puzzling than any he might have written. Written with hallucinatory clarity, City of Glass combines dark humor with Hitchcock-like suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When a stranger calls on Daniel Quinn's phone asking to speak to Paul Auster (supposedly a detective), Quinn claims to be Auster and soon is drawn into a case involving a man who fears his father is trying to kill him. "An impressive if not major work," PW concluded.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Daniel Quinn, author of a series of de tective pot-boilers, accepts an assign ment as a real private investigator from a man who dials his phone number by mistake. His mission: to keep an eye on the man's father, a former linguistics professor who has spent time in jail for bizarre childrearing experiments. Quinn quickly loses track of both his client and the suspect, as well as his own apartment and belongings, and fi nally his identity. This metafictional mystery, reminiscent of Robbe-Gril let's anti-novel The Erasers, challenges conventional notions of character and plot. However, unless the remaining volumes of this projected trilogy pro vide more depth and substance, Aus ter's previous book, The Invention of Solitude, will probably remain the best introduction to his work. Edward B. St. John, Loyola Marymount Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 7, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140097317
• ISBN-13: 978-0140097313
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Travels in the Scriptorium, The Brooklyn Follies, and Oracle Night. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The definition of thought provoking, October 10, 2002

By 

Elia - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Glass (New York Trilogy) (Paperback)

After reading several of the reviews on City of Glass, I felt a need to give my own opinion. This is a book of perception. One person could perceive it as some sort of [messed] up mystery novel, though if they read it expecting a detective story they will be sorely dissapointed. Another could perceive it as a book about morality, but even that seems cheap and weak. I believe that this is a book about perception and identity.

The main character is Daniel Quinn, who writes under the name William Wilson, about the charcter Max Work. At the beggining of the novel he identifies more with Max that with either of the other aspects of himself. Quinn receives a phone call from Peter Stillman for Detective Paul Auster (look familiar?) and chooses to claim his identity as well.

Then he interacts with Peter Stillman , son of Peter Stillman (who coincidently(?) has the name of Quinn's dead son). This is the gentleman whose case he is supposed to be working on, under the name of Paul Auster. Damaged as a result of a freakish childhood Peter Stillman is an anomolous character. He refers to himself as Peter Nobody, Anything, and Not Here. He claims that he is learning how to be Peter Stillman. Another case of identity confusion.

Quinn is sent on a mission to track Peter Stillman, father of Peter Stillman, an old man who, regardless of the number of times he meets Quinn can never recognize him. Thus Quinn pretends to be a different person each time they encounter eachother.

City of Glass is strange and disturbing and thought provoking. I haven't even meantioned Daniel Quinn the writer, pretending to be Paul Auster the detective, meeting Paul Auster the writer, and his son Daniel. Or how Don Quixote and Cervantes and Quinn and Paul Auster are all the same person!

So if your ready for something to screw with your mind, and make you wonder about the nature of life and literature, read the City of Glass. If you want to read a mystery novel pick up something by Sue Grafton.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I didn't get it at first, December 18, 2002

By 

C. D. Murphy (Natick, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City of Glass (New York Trilogy) (Paperback)

I put the book down and had thought well of it, but not worthy of a review let alone a good one, but as I went to sleep that night, it hit me. At the point that I understood what the main character represented, which was a Campbellian march through the four phases of life, I became quite impressed with what Auster had done. I need to read it again to see all the details that I missed not understanding the parallels with life, but look for this as you read it: from his birth as Auster, to understanding language with Stillman, the identity crisis with the father, the mid-life crisis after meeting his namesake, the question of paths during this, the isolation of late life and finally the fading away. On this level, the story is absolutely stunning.

I think there are other levels that smarter people than myself have figured out and maybe with the next reading I will see some of them.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER FICTIONAL RORSCHACH TEST, March 2, 2003

By 

John D. Burlinson "whoa_boy" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Glass (New York Trilogy) (Paperback)

I place this item on a none-too-tiny list of literary Rorschach tests. Unconvinced? Please sample any ten of my fellow reviewer's estimates of the "meaning" of this book.
The best parts of this book are the hero's various meetings with the two Peter Stillmans, father & son. The dialogs between Quinn and these two grotesques are very amusing.
Interesting use of the author as character in his own fiction -- though not as entertaining as other still-living masters of this specialty: Roth (P.), Vidal, Mailer.