The New York Trilogy

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster is a three part book all revolving around intrigue, missing people, writers scribing books, and strange departures of people from their home and each book has some level of connection to the same story, or does it??  The book is lauded as a “detective fiction.” In the first book, City of Glass, an unassuming man answers his phone late one night and is “mistaken” by the caller as a world renowned detective who needs to help find the missing father of her husband.  The man answering the phone decides he will assume the role of the detective, though he was actually a writer who has since stopped writing novels and begins working to find the father, whom we are led to believe that the new detective is the father (who does one search for self, well adopt a new identity)!!  He spends months searching and waiting for the "missing father” and becomes a bum, losing his home and all of his works.  Fast forward to the second “book” – Ghosts, all of the characters are named colors.  The same “detective” search process occurs with the lead character (Blue) faces off against his nemesis, Black.  The final book, The Locked Room, adopts a similar theme.  The main character (Fanshawe), an author, disappears and is assumed dead.  His friend takes on his works, which become profitable.  The friend also marries Fanshawe’s wife and adopts his son.  But like all good mysteries, Fanshawe is not dead as he reveals himself to his friend, who has to battle him and his ghost.  I enjoyed the first and third books, while Ghosts was a duplication with characters named colors, pretty farcical…   the books, while have some common themes present don’t exactly “fit” together (if that was the intent), otherwise some repetition and missing elements.  Hard at times to keep track of whom is who.  Loved how I was toured around NYC during the first book, walking through Washington Square Park and across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Ah how NYC impacts the world!