The New York Trilogy

The New York Trilogy, a 308 page book of three parts, was something else I had read during my university career, but the difference between this and Gatsby is that I really wasn't too concerned with the idea that I'd forgotten what the thing was about. Instead, re-reading this was a bit of a fact finding reassurance mission- I'd recommended it to a friend of mine, and wanted to recheck whether I was right to do so. I bit of an out of the way thing to check, but whatever. And I can say with some confidence that I think I have indeed made a good call. So yay me.

The books contained within are 'City of Glass', 'Ghosts', and 'The Locked Room', all done by Paul Auster in the late 80's. Which still feels like they're brand new.

Let's get some dictionary housekeeping out of the way:

penury extreme poverty or scarcity

　
scrofulous 1. pertaining to, resembling, of the nature of, or affected with scrofula. aka tuberculosis. 2. morally tainted.

　
divagations to wander, stray. To digress in speech
　

harangue
1. a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack; diatribe.

2. a long, passionate, and vehement speech, especially one delivered before a public gathering.

3. any long, pompous speech or writing of a tediously hortatory or didactic nature; sermonizing lecture or discourse.

　
Baudelaire
1821--67, French poet, noted for his macabre imagery; author of Les fleurs du mal (1857) (someone to look into in the future- though I have heard of him before)

Special Quotes:

P.137: "Blue looks through the binoculars and reads the title of the book that Black is reading. Walden, by Henry David Thoreau."

The quote here isn't particularly important, however I couldn't help but wonder if it's this reference that got me to read Walden. I know I was reading this at the same time I took an American Literature class that mentioned Walden. Most likely after those two references I went "Okay, I get it, I'll read Walden! Stop shoving it in my face!"

P. 292: "But that was the thing that thrilled me - the randomness of it, the vertigo of pure chance."

Important quote because, considering who I recommended this book to and why, well, this quote is perfect.

So, City of Glass. It's about a writer who writes detective stories getting confused for a detective who is named the same as the author Paul Auster, who does appear in the novel, but again, isn't a detective, having to follow the father of his client Peter Stillman, who is himself named Peter Stillman. Yup, it's one of those stories. And I've actually left out some of the craziness. It (like all of the New York Trilogy) is actually a very minimalist detective story. Very little action, few clues. It just sort of goes on... it just astounds me how a novel can be written with such sparcity of detail. And be good. There's a comic book adaptation of this one, so you can check the whole thing out in an hour if you like. Mentioning that fact before I said "adaption" instead of "adaptation". Embarrassing.

Ghosts may be my favourite, just listen the description the book jacket gives: "Blue, a student of Brown, has been hired by White to spy on Black. From a window of a rented room on Orange Street, Blue stalks his subject, who is staring out of HIS window." It can be a little hard to keep people straight, what with the unusual names. You don't think of Blue or Brown or Black or White as names, the characters are abstractions, with their actions arbitrarily hung on person A, B, C, D, etc. Which really just brings attention to the fact that that's what we ALWAYS do when reading, it's just easier to pretend what's on the page is a real person with a name that doesn't break our willing suspension of disbelief. No one is ready to accept a universe where Brown/Blue/Black/White are all interrelated... but why not? They're all legitimate names (maybe not Blue..)

Interesting note: the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief" was apparently coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge- that's right! He of the Kubla Khan, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner fame! Cool!

Locked Room helps to tie the books together, though no one is getting easy answers. It breaks the formulas, despite being part of the New York Trilogy of detective stories, where the other two specifically star detectives (even if the first one is only pretending, he's still taken on a legitimate case, so, at what point does he become a "real" detective?) and all the action takes place in New York- in The Locked Room there are extended parts which take place outside New York, and only one out-of-the-blue line where the main character refers to himself as a detective.

This isn't a book for everyone. But the cover of this Penguin edition is totally awesome. Pulpy.