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The New York Trilogy

City of Glass/ Ghosts/ the Locked Room

By Paul Auster

(388)

| Paperback | 9780140169638

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Book Review: The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster Share

Here’s something I love: You have a book that you did not buy. You know nothing about it but its title and the picture on the cover. These lead you to certain expectations, but when you begin to read, you realize your expectations were totally wrong, ... (read full critics)

blogcritics published on Mon, 8 Aug 2011

14 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

Who says not working through midnight is unbearably wearing? In office I have to tackle difficult people one by one as well as to read through every tedious word pages by pages. As the project deadline is approaching these days are becoming more critical than ever. So, the pathetically fleeted leisu ... (continue)

Who says not working through midnight is unbearably wearing? In office I have to tackle difficult people one by one as well as to read through every tedious word pages by pages. As the project deadline is approaching these days are becoming more critical than ever. So, the pathetically fleeted leisure time inside the MTR carriage becomes all too important than at any other days. Opening the book is precisely like taking out the magical instruments out of Ding Dong’s pocket, ‘ding’, and I find myself in the 70’s New York, hovering around the blocks aimlessly, observing all kind of weirdos (oh well, am I not one of those?). While other lucky commuters who lay on the bench, fall in and out of the morning dreams with the passage of the train; I fall in and out of an imaginary travel machine, with which I am able to travel far far far away, back at times only to remind myself I am literally about to work, that life is not a lyrical drama but an infinite vanity. Sorry I think I’m sidetracking. Indeed I have no intention to lead you to my own brand of pessimistic notion again. I am actually enormous grateful to have a book in my hand, with which I am able to flee to anytime and any place whenever I will.
It is the magical power of Paul Auster. Never before have I found a city so captivating only by imagination. Let’s name Murakami’s Tokyo, Oscar Wilde’s London, Kundera’s Prague, or even John Banvile’s hard-boiled British shore; they are very ordinary in their own way; yet still not comparable to Auster's New York. The writer actually sketched the streets and blocks with the smokescreen called mystery, and you could do nothing but follow his footsteps.
Even though I am so overwhelmed, this is probably the last Auster's work I'd like to consume. Is it really true that no artists can ever escape the trap of life, which Nietzsche suggested as 'eternal recurrence'? The Moon Palace, The New York Trilogy, you may say they are 3 books, 4 stories; but nobody's about to blame you if you confuse all the 3 (or say, 4) together. They are just so alike to convince me any other book of him will be ultimately the same. I am apparently too impatient to check out my premonition; yet I'm just eager to set foot on New York the dreamy Austen city one day not long from now.

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fruit said on Nov 9, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Reading alone

Solitude. First word pops up in my mind reading it. And because I'm reading it alone in a foreign country, the experience is intense.

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Capitano Nemo said on Mar 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

A great postmodern thriller that re-invents detective stories.
if you like novels that explore human identity this is the one for you.

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Ines said on Jan 24, 2008 | Add your feedback

Excellent - like Borges reading Kafka in a Manhattan bar, then forgetting his own name.

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LFrig said on Jul 24, 2011 | Add your feedback

A Dark and Brilliant Classic

The New York Trilogy has been a pleasure to read, yet haunting. “Can words affect the outcome of reality? “ A recurrent theme in the trilogy makes one think that maybe having this book in a household could perhaps be dangerous- a hazardous object that may bring bad lucks. Even fearful of throwing ... (continue)

The New York Trilogy has been a pleasure to read, yet haunting. “Can words affect the outcome of reality? “ A recurrent theme in the trilogy makes one think that maybe having this book in a household could perhaps be dangerous- a hazardous object that may bring bad lucks. Even fearful of throwing it away.
In his three stories, Paul Auster writes City of Glass, Ghost, and The Locked Room; all of which seem like different versions of the same story and idea. While each story may reflect a similar event and the exact same character, perhaps they are all about the author, from the previous one and become repetitive to some extent, Auster never fails to add a fresh insight to the character's philosophical revelations.
When a writer gets stuck writing a story, it could get him started by writing about why he has a writer's block- and that's exactly what Auster seems to do- really well. All protagonists are writers, detectives, and followers. And their method of solving the mystery is by writing about them, and mostly about their inner thoughts. This is a brilliant way that readers get a pass to the inside of the characters' heads. And it works. We are stuck in their convoluted minds, and can't seem to get away from the characters' problems.

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LinaKatano said on Jun 22, 2011 | Add your feedback

E' come se il libro si scrivesse da sé.

"These three stories are finally the same story, but each one represents a different stage in my awareness of what it is about. I don't claim to have solved any problems. I am merely suggesting that a moment came when it no longer frightened me to look at what happened. If words followed, it was onl ... (continue)

"These three stories are finally the same story, but each one represents a different stage in my awareness of what it is about. I don't claim to have solved any problems. I am merely suggesting that a moment came when it no longer frightened me to look at what happened. If words followed, it was only because I had no choice but to accept them, to take them upon myself and go where they wanted to go. But that does not necessarily make the words important. I have been struggling to say goodbye to something for a long time now, and this struggle is all that really matters. The story is not in the words; it's in the struggle."

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Fabio said on Mar 12, 2011 | Add your feedback