Haunted by Ghosts

Okay, so I know this is just the blog of a half-baked little girl and not a Postmodern Literature Class but can we talk about Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy? I've finished City of Glass and I just finished Ghosts at lunch today and I need some serious deconstruction.

First let me say that this is my first reading of Auster. I just figured it was time I give him a try and the Brooklyn Public Library had a couple of his works in paperback. I chose The New York Trilogy because of my love of detective stories and the noir genre but I totally got more than I bargained for. When I began reading City of Glass [eds. help!: is a novela underlined/italicized or put in quotations marks?], I almost put it down several times (this novella is about 15o pages). "I don't like this," I thought. "He's losing me." But I was compelled to read through to the conclusion; with a short story this seems worth the effort. I was both blown away and mad at myself that I didn't see this coming. I feel like I am on the verge of understanding this story and yet I never will. I saw in the wiki that "William Wilson" (Quinn's nom de plume in this story) is also the name of a Poe short story about doppelgaengers- I think I read this story once but now I want to reread it.

Then I started Ghosts, which is shorter than City of Glass and more readable in that it does not include any distractions like the Tower of Babel, Don Quixote and Puritan scholarship. I'm inclined to say that Ghosts in one of my new favorite short stories. I feel like I have a more solid understanding of this piece but I would still like to discuss the themes with someone else.

Look, I can guess how many comments this post is going to get, but if Sheena can talk about literature on her blog, why can't I?

And for all of you yawning right now, check out this link from Jesse: someone else is saying what you're thinking.