Reading the City

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature Works grade: 2 University of Constance course: Hauptseminar - „History Theory Practise of Reading language: English abstract: Hunger chance disappearance and solitude are the central themes of Auster's fiction.1 Sometimes these themes are easy to detect but in their core more complex as they seem to be on first sight.With the New York Trilogy Paul Auster has created a powerful and deep going tripartite work which made him popular all over the world. In 1989 he received the Prix France Culture de Littérature Étrangère for this his first novella and many other prices followed for other works he has published until now.City of Glass2 deals with reality and coincidence - failure and identity in the frame of a detective story. It was a wrong number that started it3 is the first sentence the reader detects when one begins to read the novel. A story about a writer named Quinn that used to be a quite talented writer. After he had lost his wife and son he publishes detective stories under the pseudonym William Wilson. Isolated from his fellow humans Quinn gets involved into a sequence of events marked by chance and solitude. He accepts to work on a case as a detective after he had received a strange phone call asking for Paul Auster the famous detective. Quinn accepts the case and from now on works under the name of Paul Auster. Him and the caller Peter Stillman meet and Quinn gets to know the details of his work - he is to protect Peter from his father Mr. Stillman senior who as Peter's wife thinks is planning to kill his son. This marks the beginning of Quinn's long journey through New York City.[...]1 Dennis Barone: Beyond the Red NotebookUniversity of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia 1995 S.22 Auster Paul: The New York Trilogy Faber and Faber Limited London 19873 Zit. Auster Paul: The New York Trilogy Faber and Faber Limited London 1987 S.3