The New York Trilogy

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster consists of three detective stories: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room. These stories are thrillers that are intelligently written, Auster keeps the reader’s attention; his writing   style is a unique twist to what we consider a detective or mystery novel, he constantly keeps the reader guessing through use of   metaphors themes twist and turns thorough   each story. The main characters of each of these separate books are strategically placed in situations as “detectives” to solve a problem that is inconceivable and beyond their comprehension. As the reader we are made unaware of why these characters are chosen, or chose to take on this role of detective.   The characters all try to become the hero through these cases but end up falling victims to them instead.   In this essay I will attempt to analyze the New York Trilogy while comparing and contrasting the stories and their themes they share, and my perspective of the trilogy as a whole.
The three books coincide with one another.   Auster states in the last book. The three books involve writers and detectives, in each case the main characters more or less switch places and takes on a new identity. The main character loses himself and becomes obsessive in a downward spiral of losing their life metaphorically to become someone else. The first story is called “City Of Glass” focuses on an identity crisis suffered by Quinn, Quinn is a mystery writer who though pure coincidence turns into a detective through “ A wrong number starting it all” (page 15 E-book). The idea of identity is apparent in this story, Quinn   writes under the name of William Wilson not wanting people to know who he is, to   become Max Work a detective he embodies, is than hired to do detective work because he has been mistaken for a detective Paul Auster. Quinn’s client identifies himself as Peter Stillman, but tells Quinn bluntly: “Peter Stillman is not my real name. So perhaps I am not Peter Stillman at...