Quinn writes mystery novels under a pseudonym, and as ''City of Glass'' begins, with a wrong number, ''the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not,'' Quinn is drawn intoĪn actual world of mystery where he begins to take on the characteristics of his fictional detective, Max Work. Quinn's and Stillman's search for arcane truth or psychological peace. Later is is reminiscent of that wasted city in Nathanael West's ''Miss Lonelyhearts,'' a place begging for interpretation and order. In the beginning the city is transparent, a place of light and air in which Quinn can stay outside of his mind's torturedĬoncerns, concentrating on neutral details. Quinn has been hired to follow Stillman, to prevent him from murdering his son. The city of the title is New York, the only truly constant character in the book, and it is the fate of this city to be walked through and interpreted by the writer Quinn and the philosopher and formerĬonvict Stillman. The real mystery, however, is one of confused character identity, the descent of a writer into a laby-rinth in which fact and fiction become increasinglyĭifficult to separate.
N Paul Auster's remarkable ''City of Glass,'' the ostensible mystery drives from the book's oddĪnd often strangely humorous working of the detective novel genre. NovemMetaphysical Mystery Tour By TOBY OLSON
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