September 4, 2008: Paul Auster's City of Glass, pp. 3-89

Despite not being your average detective story, Paul Auster’s City of Glass features many “clichés” of detective stories. This goes with the metafiction concept of characters playing into expected roles. City of Glass’s main character, Quinn, does not play into an expected role except when he is pretending to be the detective, Paul Auster. Once immersed in this persona, he becomes the classic detective as seen in many mystery movies and novels (even in the novels Quinn writes). When Quinn acts, he thinks about what his own novels’ detective, Max Work, would do in a certain situation and Quinn copies him. When at the Stillman house, “he thought about what Max Work might have been thinking had he been there. He decided to light a cigarette” (14). He falls easily into the assumed role; he says the proper things and asks the right questions. After losing his tail on Stillman, Sr., Quinn (as Auster) reassures a panicked Mrs. Stillman that he has a few ideas on how to find the man again, even though he really doesn’t. Although Quinn has a passive and slightly nervous personality, as Auster, he becomes the traditional smooth-talking, self-assured detective. He is confident and levelheaded. He tracks his mark, keeps detailed notes, and even assumes different “disguises” with ease, just as any other typical detective would. Other aspects of the story even go along with these detective story clichés. The novel opens with a mysterious phone call, a device seen before in mystery novels. Quinn/Auster’s client is a mysterious and beautiful woman who kisses him at their first meeting, mirroring the femme fatales of classic noir films. City of Glass acknowledges its own label as a mystery/detective story by adding obvious clichés and turning its main character into the typical detective character.