Detectives

Already the book City of Glass is vastly different from The Big Sleep. One of the major differences I have noticed deals with the depth in which each author goes into character descriptions. In City of Glass, Auster goes into depth describing his main characters, as opposed to Chandler who gives brief snippets of information, often times making it harder to remember who was who. Auster, within the first chapter, tells us about Quinn, the main character and accidental detective’s, life. We learn that his family is dead and that he is a writer who publishes under a pseudonym, William Wilson. Quinn has deep emotional issues. Quinn wishes to escape his life, which is what allows himself to forget about himself and essentially “become” William Wilson. Quinn is so consumed with his fiction that he takes on the qualities of his detective character, Max Work, and lives as though he would. This is what leads him to take on the case as he does that night he receives the fateful call from Peter Stillman.  Chandler does not bring us into the personal life of Marlowe. We don’t know if he has a family, we don’t know about his personality or anything about him outside of the Sternwood case. He is a mystery in himself, and that helps to detach him from the crime he is trying to uncover. Marlowe is also a detective by profession, whereas Quinn stumbled upon the gig by way of a phone call to the wrong number.

 

I am interested to read on and I attribute that to Auster’s writing style. Judging from only the first 5 chapters, I can already tell that I will enjoy this book more than The Big Sleep. Auster’s characters are much more interesting and I attribute that the detail in his character descriptions. I understand that Chandler didn’t want us to be emotionally tied to Marlowe for that would ruin his hero-like qualities, however, I believe getting to know a character on a more personal level invests the reading into wanting them to succeed, and thus following more carefully their journey.  

Bryce Rubin