Reviews

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

gene_poole's review against another edition

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4.0

You know this is a novel about writing, because that is what Paul Auster writes about. But what does he believe about writing? What is his psycho-philo-aesthetical stance? Maybe you know something about his belief in language as the basis for our understanding of reality. You know this book is going to be a puzzle and you know there will be unexplained endings and mysterious characters and the effect will be to rattle your own notions about what narrative actually is. You will enter this thinking, "Am I in a labyrinth?" and wonder if it will prove too much for you. Then you realize these three novellas are all detective stories, laid out in narrative forms you recognize. The first one plays with the idea of who the author is. Is it the narrator, or the character in the story whose name is the same as the one on the cover of the book you're holding, or the author named on the cover? In the second, you follow a narrator who is caught in an endless and life-destroying stakeout of another character who happens to be the client of the narrator, establishing a circular and unsolvable plot. In the last one you follow the narrator who takes over the family and literary life of his childhood best friend, who finally vows to kill the narrator or commit suicide if he is ever uncloaked. Now you're confused. Will you read a few analyses and reviews? Will you allow the tangled and interwoven narratives and their many-layered authors time enough to sort themselves out? Will you start writing your own narrative, and dispute its authorship? In the end, and here is the end, you don't know.

annekejanssen's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

itsenricov's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

jbeagle04's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

pinkgian's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

luka_djuro's review against another edition

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dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

mhadick's review against another edition

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5.0

These books have a way of working into your thoughts and then into your blood and finally it's as if you taste the ideas with every breath. The antidote is to worry about the approach to detective work, but we all wind up tracing our own paths, and to inspect any or all of our choices is to force ourselves to deal with the many unseemly things we do, most of which leave a bad taste in our mouth.

Like this review, methinks.

Enjoy.

juliumpi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

jasperverfaillie's review against another edition

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5.0

"As it happened, he was sitting on the toilet, in the act of expelling a turd when the phone rang. (...) By the third ring, his bowels were empty. By the fourth ring, he had succeeded in wiping himself. By the fifth ring, he had pulled up his pants, left the bathroom, and was walking calmly across the apartement. He answered the phone on the sixth ring, but there was no one on the other end. The caller had hung up."

Dit is literatuur van de bovenste plank!

goosedollaz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75