Ghosts (New American Fiction) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the second novel in the author's New York Trilogy, the first of which, City of Glass, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America's "Edgar" award. Here, a private eye named Blue is hired by White to follow and report on Black. Blue's problem is that Black does little more than sit at a table in his Brooklyn Heights apartment and write. Months pass and Blue can stand the non-activity no longer. He begins to intervene in Black's life and learns that Black too is a private detective who is reporting on a man who does nothing but sit in a window and write. Finally, Blue breaks into Black's room, beats him severely and steals his pages. Auster, who also writes poetry, begins Blue's tale on the day of his own birth, suggesting, along with the unresolved ending, meanings wider than the story's narrow space and time. Nevertheless, carried along by carefully wrought, unadorned prose, the tale still satisfies.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

A fiction writer compiles his essays and interviews with such literary greats as Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Paul Celan, and more in a book that calls attention to the dangerous stakes of writing and undermines accepted notions about literature.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 102 pages
• Publisher: Sun & Moon Press; First edition. edition (February 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940650703
• ISBN-13: 978-0940650701
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,420,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing the color of Auster's best characters , February 8, 2007

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Ghosts: A Novel by Paul Auster (New American Fiction Series, No 5) (Hardcover)

This small novella is the second unit of the 'New York Trilogy' It is the mediocre work wedged in between two extraordinary ones. The device of giving the major characters of the work color- names (i.e. Blue is the detective paid by White to watch Black) seems to me abstract and ineffective. One of the great strengths of Auster's writing is his capacity to create incredibly interesting characters, whose lives and stories we want to know more about. Here Blue sits too long watching and waiting for Black to give himself away.
I know that there are many hidden meanings and connections in this work, as there are in all Auster's work. I know I missed most of them. But nonetheless I would claim that great art has to appeal first of all on the surface level, and that here Auster misses the mark.

3.0 out of 5 stars This novella intrigues but does not satisfy, January 22, 2007

By	Living in the Redwoods (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts: A Novel by Paul Auster (New American Fiction Series, No 5) (Hardcover)

Just finished "City of Glass" and then found the New York Trilogy on a bookshelf at home and finished this 70 page story in one day.

My interpretation of the plot is that a "twisted" writer (White) hides his identity and hires a young private eye (Blue) to sit in an apartment across the street from his own apartment. Blue is duped into thinking he is tailing someone named Black and obligingly sends off weekly reports to White on Black's activities. It takes Blue and the reader a long time to figure out what is really going on. Like Auster's previous novel, the detective becomes obsessive, then introspective, and finally deranged as the story goes on. The main characters could be considered insane by the time we reach the rather abrupt ending. Ugh!

I kept wanting to tap Blue on the shoulder through the first half of this story and tell him his work compulsion was going to get him in big trouble. Then I realized as time dragged on unbelieveably in the story that Auster was determined to lead his characters towards their absurd and insane climatic behavior.

So go ahead and read these two stories if you are curious about how it feels to slip into derangement.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Color of Thought, July 1, 2006

By	Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews

Auster is not an easy read, but he himself admits this comparing himself to Thoreau and Walden, he intimates that you have to read him slowly to get all of the nuances.

The story itself appears simple (and mimics some of 'City of Glass'), White hires Blue to watch Black and report each week what Black has done. (White has rented two apartments that front on each other from across a steet..Orange Steet.) What Blue and Black don't know is that they have been hired to watch each other. Blue spends almost a year watching Black do nothing more than write a novel. My guess is that Black is writing the novel to keep himself busy, in the same way that Blue makes up stories in his head but never puts them to pen. In the end, Blue steals Blacks manuscript (after beating him up), reads it and leaves his apartment.

If the colors (say of light) are metaphors (duh!), white is the absense of substance, Black is the total of all colors of light and Blue is the shadow of Black. Since Blue and Black are the complement to each other, one is the stronger and the other is the follower. In the end the follower terminates the leader and leaves unfulfilled.

There are three strong hint as to what Auster is trying to get at in this story (IMHO). First is that like Walden by Thoreau there is a lot more there than meets the eyes you just have to look for it. Second is the story by Hawthorne of the man who spends years away from his family but is watching them from afar but late is welcomed back. Third, the movie 'Out of the Past' with Robert Mitchum which is about a private detective. If you take some time to look at all three, this book with be much easier to understand.

Contemplation is everything and nothing says the sparrow to the crow.