The New York Trilogy

This series of novellas is considered a postmodern take on the detective novel and uses conventions of the genre as their base. In all three stories, a solitary male character finds himself involved in a mystery that was artificially constructed to one degree or another by an antagonist that we know little about.

Each of these protagonists goes on a downward spiral and loses sight of himself, the purpose in his own life, and his relationships or goals. Quinn, the main character from “City of Glass” is the most sympathetic, maybe because before the start of his adventure he has already suffered tragedy. By the time the reader can see that his mystery has come to a deadend, he doesn't let go.

“Quinn no longer had any interest in himself. He wrote about the stars, the earth, his hopes for mankind. He felt that his words had been severed from him, that now they were part of the world at large, as real and specific as a stone, or a lake, or a flower.”

“It struck me that writing under another name might be something I would enjoy–to invent a secret identity for myself–and I wondered why I found this idea so attractive.”

“As the days go on, Blue realizes there is no end to the stories he can tell. For Black is no more than a kind of blankness, a hole in the texture of things, and one story can fill this hole as well as any other”

now having read more auster, i find it easier to place his breakthrough piece. in essence, it's an assemblage of deconstructed forms, narratives, prose. each is compelling on standalone basis but together they often do not mix well. in particular, in all 3 sections, auster seems to dig himself the same hole as his writer protagonist in the later oracle night does, having penned a brilliant first 50 pages but unable to find a meaningful resolution beyond a reduction into dust. each section gets stronger, the last displaying an almost there version of the confident, all-conquering narrative voice that he masters in novel #2 and never loses