Line #16 Literature/TheNewYorkTrilogy


1	[[quoteright:182:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/new_york_trilogy.jpg]]
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3	A compilation of three detective fiction novellas by Paul Auster. Well, that might be oversimplifying things a little bit. The New York Trilogy's three stories are postmodern {{Mind Screw}}s based on the format of the standard detective novel and FilmNoir, piling mysteries on mysteries and mystery of mystery itself.
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6	'''City of Glass''' (1985)
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8	The first novella, City of Glass, centres around author Daniel Quinn, who [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive receives a call in the middle of the night in his apartment]], asking for the detective Paul Auster. He passes himself off as Auster and accepts the case of Peter Stillman, a damaged young man whose father locked him in a darkened room with no human contact for most of his life. As Quinn investigates the case, he loses his sense of identity as Daniel Quinn, and descends into madness. This story also includes another Paul Auster, who is a complete author avatar. This character is the one who relayed the information of the story to the unnamed 'author' referenced in the novella.
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10	!!Tropes featured include:
11	* [[AsHimself As Herself]]: Paul Auster's second wife Siri Hustvedt, and his son Daniel, appear as themselves. The physical description of Virginia Stillman is quite close to that of Auster's first wife Lydia Davis when she was a young woman.
12	* AsTheGoodBookSays: The book contains much discussion -- and some quotation -- of the Tower of Babel story.
13	* AuthorAvatar: Paul Auster.
14	* ContrivedCoincidence: Quinn has no better explanation for how he ended up on the case than this.
15	* MostWritersAreWriters: Quinn is an author.
16	* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Quinn at the end of the book.
17	* TomatoSurprise: Towards the end of the novella, the previously invisible narrator starts talking about themself in the first person, criticises the behaviour of the Paul Auster character, and wishes Quinn well, whatever became of him.
18	* WordSaladHorror: Peter Stillman's monologue has elements of this
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22	'''Ghosts''' (1986)
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24	The private eye Blue, a pupil of Brown, investigates Black of Orange Street for White.
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26	!!Tropes featured include:
27	* ColorfulThemeNaming: Everyone in the story is named after a color, except historical figures and (meta)fictional characters.
28	* NoNameGiven: Blue's sweetheart is referred to only as "the future Mrs. Blue". Until she breaks up with him, when she becomes "the former future Mrs. Blue" or similar circumlocutions.
29	* TheStakeout: Blue spends most of his time staking out Black's apartment.
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33	'''The Locked Room''' (1986)
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35	The narrator is contacted by the wife of his recently disappeared childhood friend Fanshawe, who wants him to deal with the writings that Fanshawe has left behind.
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37	!!Tropes featured include:
38	* TheAce: Fanshawe. He's a handsome and popular man who apparently can't tell a lie, he stands up for what's right when he punches out a racist while working as a merchant seaman, and he's a writer of genius.
39	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Fanshawe's entire story [[spoiler: including faking his own death and staying out of the way long enough for his wife to mourn his death, recover, fall in love with the narrator and marry him, and for the narrator to publish Fanshawe's unpublished work and for it to be acclaimed as masterpieces]] turns out to be about this. Unfortunately, he then writes the narrator a letter...
40	* MostWritersAreWriters: The narrator is a critic; Fanshawe is an unpublished novelist and poet.
41	* ShoutOut: Fanshawe is named after the debut novel of Creator/NathanielHawthorne.

Context Literature / TheNewYorkTrilogy