The New York Trilogy (Green Integer/El-E-Phant): Amazon.co.uk: Paul Auster: Books

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31 Reviews

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4.2 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars modern Man's search for identity - or a joke on the reader?, 9 Sep 2005

By	M. I. R. Clarke "ian clarke" (northern ireland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The New York Trilogy: "City of Glass", "Ghosts" and "Locked Room" (Paperback)

NY Trilogy is certainly an entertaining and perplexing work of fiction, each story a variation on the theme of identity (lost and found), rootlessness, insecurity, what makes us human and individual , and other heavy themes.

However in this bleak, urban look at the impersonality of modern society, Auster is also having fun playing games with us, demonstrating (his) the writer's ability to create fictional characters - exploring how much of the characters are invention and how much autobiographical. Even the narrator - is that the writer's voice or an imposter? We, the readers, become the detective, encountering a trail of red herrings, unreliable witnesses and dead ends to try to discover the motives of author, narrator and characters. Can we find out the truth? Is that the message?

Each is a puzzling case, inter-related by characters who turn up repeatedly (including Auster himself - described in the third person). You're never sure whether it is the same person each time or another invention by the author. Confused? That's part of the charm of the book - I'm not sure there is a tidy solution - it is certainly an unsettling experience as the narrator in each case seems to be unreliable and more than a bit unstable, but it gets your brain working and that's got to be a good thing.

I enjoyed it - i don't really know why. I can't even decide whether it's well written. Certainly it's funny at times (in a nervous twitchy way) and if you're the sort who enjoys this sort of multi-layered mind game I can whole-heartedly recommend two English alternatives - Charles Palliser's "Unburied" or James Lasdun's "The Horned Man"

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A twentieth century classic, 19 Jun 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The New York Trilogy: "City of Glass", "Ghosts" and "Locked Room" (FF Classics) (Paperback)

The NewYork Trilogy is that rare thing, a book that will continue to haunt you long after you put it down. Though the three stories it contains are structured and inspired by thriller novels, the work is essentially a meditation on the art of writing. It draws a parallel between a private investigator having to watch the person he has been hired to spy on and a writer attempting to create and capture a life on the page. All the central characters in the three stories hit a black wall at some point, where they feel unable to penetrate through to the subject under their observation. Auster captures this limitation of writing beautifully. This is a gripping, dark and completely original piece of work. Certainly a twentieth century classic. I shudder to think that I was nearly going to pass it over.

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41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most Rewarding three books you'll ever read..., 20 Jul 2000

By	Particular Press "particularpress" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New York Trilogy: "City of Glass", "Ghosts" and "Locked Room" (Paperback)

The New York Trilogy is undeniably the most bizarre book i've ever read; billed as something along the lines of classic american crime writing with a post-modern twist, the three stories in the trilogy are not only gripping, they'll stay in your head for sometime after you've read them

City of GLass is typical of the three stories; it takes a regular detective with the job of trailing someobody for a client - Auster expertly conveys the obsession assosciated with such a case, and his character Quinn, soon loses all human characteristics...

While this and the locked room are both wonderful reads, the gem in the trilogy is the considerably shorter, Ghosts. Written in such a taut crisp style, this short story is often confusing, but never overwhelming.

Auster has taken the genre by its nether regions and delivered a keen and intelligent analysis of it. After reading the trilogy you can't help but feel more intelligent and content. THese are truly miraculous writings.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Sparkling and puzzlingly addictive...
The New York trilogy consists of three separate but sparsely connected stories. Maybe they are connected by the writer himself, maybe they are connected by someone called Paul... Read more

Published 2 months ago by bressons_puddle

5.0 out of 5 stars The NY Trilogy
It's taken me a long time to get round to reading Paul Auster's work, and after devouring his fictional debut, the three novelettes that make up The New York Trilogy, which he... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Leyla Sanai

5.0 out of 5 stars Read again!
My short recommendation is that as soon as I finished this book I wanted to turn back to the first page and read it again. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Elena Georgiou

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

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Different
Two things I have got out of reading this book. First, this author must be one of the best in breaking down complex characters and take the plot where you don't expect it to go... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Mohamed Abdulmalik

3.0 out of 5 stars Kafka Gets Private-eyesed
Where Kafka's characters find themselves being frustrated and circumscribed by a system (The Castle & The Trial etc), in Auster's world (New York) this task, it seems, has been... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Mr. S. J. Wade

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing but Unfulfilling
First and foremost this is not a trilogy in the conventional sense. It is not one story told across three episodes but rather three separate stories which follow the same loose... Read more

Published 21 months ago by Wildlife Bookworm

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique!
... Im beginning to feel like im over- using the word unique but in this case i really dont know how else to descibe this book as it so unlike anything i have read before. Read more

Published on 13 Feb 2007 by Heather

1.0 out of 5 stars Pseuds corner
I had been reading rave reviews of Austers work for maybe 10 years when I bought this book. It may be that there are a number of clever ploys in each story, I wouldn't know,... Read more

Published on 20 Sep 2006 by F. M. Muse

4.0 out of 5 stars «It's a bittersweet symphony, this life…»
Get ready for a ride through the complexity of human race, all the mixed, funny, sad and incomprehensible emotion of the common man. Read more

Published on 30 Dec 2005 by ana_mm

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