City of Glass

Bri Fowle
City of Glass, so far, is very odd. What struck me as the most interesting so far is that Quinn and the author seem to possibly be similar. Quinn lost his family, so he became somewhat of a robot. He just went through the actions of living and lost his sense of purpose in life. He didn’t feel anything anymore. He wrote mystery novels under a pseudonym, and only then did he feel some sense of being alive. He related more to his pseudonym and his main character in his book than he did to himself. When he got the call for Paul Auster, he became yet another person besides himself. I think that because of what happened to his family, whatever it was, he could only relate to the outside world through other characters. The reason I say that the author and Quinn could be similar is the fact that Auster uses his own name in the book. Maybe he is living vicariously through the main character of his book, similar to Quinn. I wonder if Auster is loosely based on Quinn at all, has had some of the same life experiences, or has been in the same situations that Quinn has. It kind of makes sense, in a weird sort of way. Another thing that I thought was interesting is the fact that Quinn only writes mystery novels, and to him, he doesn’t even do that, William Wilson does. So why when Peter calls for Auster does Quinn say that he is Auster and he will take the case?