Intellectual, four layers of meta, constantly keeps you guessing. Solid four stars.

He’s a bit of a weirdo

Finally read Paul Auster's City of Glass (1985), the first in the New York trilogy that I have been meaning to read for ages. City of Glass is wacky, exceedingly smart, full of fun, and ideal for anyone (like me) who loves a good play with who the narrator is/play with what fiction is/ play with doubled identities. It tells the story of a detective set on a very strange course of events by a phone call late at night. Unlike many books set in my beloved hometown New York City, it's completely accurate about the city, a minor but gratifying fact. The prose is sparse but not totally ascetic and has some very lovely interiority such as this: "What he did not understand, however, was this: in that he was falling, how could he be expected to catch himself as well? Was it possible to be at the top and the bottom at the same time?" (179). My husband and I love the film based on Auster's Smoke (with Harvey Keitel, a must-see), and now I want to read so much more Auster!

One of the most thought provoking books I've read. Very interesting, clean language that is still confusing and mysterious. This book made me a bit paranoid, I'd be looking for mundane clues in word choice. Clues to what I'm not sure. Peter Stillman is one of the more interesting characters I've ever experienced. Paul Auster being a character at all is a very confusing move, and I love it.

I don't really know how this book could ave had a twist ending, but it did. Paul Auster is very good at his job.

The prose itself flows very well, but this contains two of my least favourite things in books: A visible author (even if he's in there as a character) and very OTT intertextuality. I love intertextuality when it doesn't get in the way of the story itself, and you can find layers upon layers of extra meaning when you "get it"/upon rereads, but in this case it really, really got in the way of the story. YES, you're referencing Don Quixote and Resurrection, we get it! Stop driving the point home with a sledge hammer!