RARA-AVIS: Auster's *City of Glass*

michael david sharp (msharp@umich.edu)
Wed, 26 Nov 1997 11:35:09 -0500 (EST) I taught Auster this term. Freaked the kids out. We read Neon Lit's
graphic novel version of *City of Glass* (beautifully produced, an amazing
visual interpretation of the novel). Daniel Quinn is this intriguing mix
of P.I. and ordinary-man-in-extraordinary-circumstances. Marlowe meets a
Woolrich protagonist meets a mental patient. A wonderful, quick read.

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Michael D. Sharp Email: msharp@umich.edu
Department of English Lang. and Lit. Phone: (313) 761-8776
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Fax: (313) 763-3128

On Wed, 26 Nov 1997, Gilbert, Len wrote:

> Loved Auster the when I read it about 5-7 years ago (can that be
> right?). Lethem's book appealed to me, but the concept seemed too
> freaky. I'd often pick it up in a bookstore but always put it back
> before checkout. Finally a friend of mine said it was really worth it,
> so I read it and found it very true to the genre while introducing some
> really weird, new stuff.
>
> >----------
> >From: Ryan Benedetti[SMTP:rhino@cybercen.net]
> >Sent: 25 November, 1997 5:58 PM
> >To: Hard-boiled List
> >Subject: RARA-AVIS: Auster and Lethem
> >
> >Has anyone out there read Paul Auster's
> >_New York Trilogy_ or _Leviathan_?
> >And since I'm asking, how about _Gun With
> >Occasional Music_ by Johnathan Lethem?
> >Auster is more pensive and post-modern,
> >whereas Lethem is more humorous and cyberpunkish,
> >but they're both definitely hard-boiled
> >structure/content-wise. Some hard-boiled
> >fans I've met, my father is one of them, will
> >only read straight, concrete realism,
> >whereas others enjoy a more "artistic" style
> >that plays with the form and formula a bit.
> >I emphasize the quotes above since realism
> >can be as artistic as any other style.
> >From recent discussions in this group,
> >I gather that we have two strands
> >here: "hard-boiled" and "noir." "Noir" seems to be
> >the bastard, post-industrial, stepchild
> >of gothic romance. "Hard-boiled" seems particular
> >to a type of post-war, commercial, detective fiction.
>
> >
> Noir is usually film, as in film noir, but I like another pretentious
> french term "roman noir" or black novel. Noir has destinct themes as
> well:
>
> * The location (usually a city) as a character-like element in the
> story.
> * A sense of entrapment.
> * Action at night.
> * Those who pass for decent folk sucked down by a flaw, greed, a woman
> OR decent folk in the wrong place at the wrong time.
> * Fate as enevitable. Justice by nature.
>
> Obviously there are others and books to describe them. Cain and Thompson
> are prime examples of Roman Noir, Detour, DOA, the Killers, of Film
> Noir. Hardboiled and Noir cross lines, but Hardboiled is often paired
> with "detective fiction" where as to me the noir novel needs no
> detective and is much more effective with a regular joe or jane. The
> Postman Always Rings Twice or Double Indemntity, for example. Vanished
> by Mary McGarry Morris is like that as well.
>
> --Len
>
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