Book Club Guide

The New York Trilogy

by Paul Auster · 1987 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The detective story as a form that deconstructs itself
Identity as something that dissolves under examination
New York as a labyrinth with no exit

About this book

Three connected detective novels — City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room — in which the conventions of detective fiction are systematically dismantled: detectives lose their identities, the cases dissolve, the distinctions between investigator and subject collapse. Auster's debut fiction is a postmodern meditation on identity, language and the impossibility of knowing anything with certainty.

Published as three novellas in 1985-86, The New York Trilogy established Auster's reputation. He has said he wrote it after a period of complete creative block and financial desperation.

Discussion questions

The Trilogy systematically dismantles the detective story — the case dissolves, the investigator loses himself, nothing is resolved. What is Auster saying about the genre — and about the desire for pattern and solution?
City of Glass begins with a detective story but the 'detective' Quinn progressively loses his identity. How does Auster develop this — and what is he saying about the relationship between surveillance and identity?
Language and naming are central concerns. What is Auster saying about the relationship between words and things?
The three novellas are connected but not as a continuous narrative. How does the trilogy structure work — and what does the triple structure add?
The New York Trilogy established Auster as a major postmodern novelist. What specifically does it do that earns this description — and does 'postmodern' feel like the right category?