by John Bowie

Created on: April 04, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

A metaphysical masterpiece which entwines reader, author and main character into an eerie world of riddles and symbolism from the off-set. In each of the three books (City of Glass/ Ghosts/ the Locked Room), a detector (a mystery writer enrolled as a detective), a detective watching a writer, and a writer trying to find his childhood friend who has made him his literary executor, all leave their previous existences to decay whilst evolving into a sum of there own activities, over obsessing and analysing. All this could quite possibly be taken as an ironic take on Austers literary state of mind when deep within a project or homage to the readers' state of mind when immersed into a well written piece. All in all a rollercoaster of prose not recommended for the mentally unhinged or those not willing to empathise with such. Using New York as a backdrop Auster cleverly engages the reader in this multi-layered book with easily accessible writing and unavoidable catchy first few pages which immediately throw into question the authors, main character and readers realty and relation to one another. Like all good books The New York Trilogy is complex but simple to read, unobvious in its beautiful word scapes and honest in its delivery. The Characters are believable and imaginable through the text whist being hollow enough to absorb you, the reader, into there lives and situation where reader, writer and detective are as one. This book sits comfortably on the shelf, by the bed and in the pocket of those who like American Psycho, Crash, The Dice Man, Naked Lunch and Post Office. The reasons being you can get carried away whilst remaining close enough to reality for it to be uncomfortably believable and for it to be far enough detached from yourself not feel guilty for enjoying them. All in all a tug on those existential strings we all need occasionally.

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