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The New York Trilogy: City of Glass; Ghosts; The Locked Room (Contemporary American Fiction Series) (Paperback)

by Paul Auster (Author) "IT was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end..." (more)
Key Phrases: red notebook, New York, Virginia Stillman, Peter Stillman (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Combining dark humor, Hitchcock-like suspense, and film-noir prose, these three unique novels--united--form a powerful and thought-provoking puzzle.

About the Author
Paul Auster’s novels include Brooklyn Follies, Oracle Night, and In the Country of Last Things, as well as two memoirs, a collection of essays, a volume of poems, and the screenplays for several films.

Luc Sante is best known for his first book, Low Life. He has also written introductions to books by Georges Simenon, Jacob Riis, and many other authors.

Art Spiegelman is a cartoonist who first came to attention in the early 1980s with a magazine he edited called Raw. Maus, his graphic novel about the Holocaust, won him the Pulitzer Prize, and his most recent book is In the Shadow of No Towers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 1, 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140131558
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140131550
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,360 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
IT was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
red notebook
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Virginia Stillman, Peter Stillman, Paul Auster, Don Quixote, Henry Dark, William Wilson, Humpty Dumpty, Orange Street, Brooklyn Bridge, Max Work, Jimmy Rose, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, New Jersey, Riverside Drive, Riverside Park, Robinson Crusoe, Stuart Green, Walt Whitman, Grand Central Station, Henry David Thoreau, Sophie Fanshawe, Brooklyn Heights, Cid Hamete Benengeli
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98 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (98 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Surveillance of the self, October 20, 2002
If you're looking for detective stories, look elsewhere. Auster isn't interested in the classic noirish private eye tale as anything but a way into territory vastly more compelling. Though his three novellas ostensibly revolve around men hired or driven into the pursuit of others, they end up being more about the psychology of the pursuer than the pursued. Surveillance of the self and the collapse of what we assume is our own identity is the abiding theme here, and Auster gives it three fascinating spins with simple plots which quickly spiral to literary altitudes. But don't expect simple resolutions. There are no straightforward answers here. If these were simple issues, they wouldn't justify the exploration Auster gives them. I had the pleasure of reading this immediately prior to Auster's "The Art of Hunger" (1997), a collection of essays and interviews which reveals, among other things, how "The New York Trilogy" blends aspects of his autobiography, literary theories and abiding interests into a fascinating work of fiction. Read them together. Then read everything else he's written. You won't be disappointed.
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45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A highly original and brilliant post-modern thriller, October 25, 1999
By A Customer
Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy" consists of three seemingly unconnected novellas which though complete in themselves should be read as integral parts of a total literary experience. Unlike a conventional mystery thriller which focuses on the "who done what to whom" aspect of the storyline, Auster turns the table on the reader by taking him on a journey of self discovery past a hall of mirrors which reflect and expose by stages the psyche of the pursuer, not the pursued. The effect is so spooky you want to scream in your head as you encounter the next slice of reality about yourself. Readers familiar with the music of rock star David Bowie will find the reading experience similar to that of listening to his 1977 album "Low", a dark and creepy introspective piece of work. All three vignettes deal with questions of identity, reality and illusion, the meaning of words and language and explores the fine line between commitment and obsession. Both Quinn in "City of Glass" and the anonymous narrator in "Ghosts" are trapped in their own circumstances and forced to make human choices which lead to their mental breakdown. There is also a noir-like cinematic feel about the trilogy that just begs for this masterful piece of work to be brought to the screen. Auster has produced a highly original post-modern thriller that will mesmerise and enthrall readers for years to come. It is simply superb and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark, Brilliant, Intense, August 4, 2002
Paul Auster's New York Trilogy is one of the finest books I've read in a long while; it's riveting. Auster is one of my favorite writers, and for those new to his writing The New York Trilogy is a good place to start.

Essentially, these three novellas are detective stories with film-noir atmosphere, but the themes Auster tackles go beyond those of your standard spy novel. There are questions of identity, power dynamics, the relationship between the writer and his characters, the relationship between a detective and his suspects.

Additionally, this is a wonderfully bookish book; references to Lewis Carroll, Cervantes, etc. abound. There are books within books within books; all the lines that separate reality from writing from fictional reality from fictional writing are blurred, turning the reader inside-out and upside-down as he or she reads.

Most importantly, these novellas are highly engaging and evocative. Though Auster's writing has been described as cold and austere, these are compelling stories; it is easy succumb to the swift, gripping narrative.

A truly lovely collection, very conceptual, breaks all the rules and wriggles its way out of any genre to which one might try to confine it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Writer's Search
I have read and greatly enjoyed four Paul Auster novels before these: THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS (2002), ORACLE NIGHT (2004), THE BROOKLYN FOLLIES (2005), and MAN IN THE DARK (2008)... Read more
Published 3 days ago by Roger Brunyate

5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC FICTION!!! Everyone should read!!
This is the BEST of Paul Auster!! Moody, mysterious, deep and disturbing. What wonderful short novellas are contained in this edition. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Writer for the Lord

5.0 out of 5 stars Language and Story Examined Through Existentialism
What can I say? There is nothing quite like this trilogy out there in the world of modern literature. Read more
Published 8 months ago by S. Niduaza

3.0 out of 5 stars Long Live the Novel! The Novel is Dead!: Postmodern Postmortem
When I was an English grad-student in the 90's, there was a certain kind of guy I observed who loved language passionately, a word-geek, you know? Read more
Published 11 months ago by Glacier Mom

5.0 out of 5 stars book
I havn't read the book yet but I did receive it in the amount of time stated and in good condition.
Published 13 months ago by A. Gibson

5.0 out of 5 stars The Existential Dashiell Hammett
This is the first book that I read by Paul Auster. I had heard of him for years, but I always assumed that he was another New York Writer. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Chuck Russell

5.0 out of 5 stars painless way into postmodernist metafiction
This is a series of subtle interlocking novellas set in New York published over 85 and 86: City of Glass, "Ghosts" and "Locked Room with the first set in the period, the 2nd in... Read more
Published 17 months ago by John

4.0 out of 5 stars "The question is the story itself, and whether or not it means something is not for the story to tell."
"He had always imagined that the key to good detective work was a close observation of details. The more accurate the scrutiny, the more successful the results. Read more
Published on June 12, 2007 by Gregory Baird

2.0 out of 5 stars Was not impressed
I read this book because I loved Paul Aster's Brooklyn Follies. This compilation of 3 short stories may have well been written by a completely different author. Read more
Published on May 19, 2007 by Jarid S. Pachter

5.0 out of 5 stars Two extraordinary short novels and an exercise by a supreme storyteller
I do not see this work the way Auster constructed it. To me it is not a 'trilogy' even though there are overlapping themes, and incidents. Read more
Published on February 8, 2007 by Shalom Freedman

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