The New York Trilogy

Blue is the protagonist in Ghosts and represents another variation of the writer/detective figure. Blue is a private detective and has learned the secrets of the job from Brown, his former boss. Blue abandons his fiancée to work on White’s case. Like Quinn, Blue is “an ardent walker” (150), but he mostly reads newspapers and magazines. His father was a police officer and detective who used to tell stories to Blue. Blue loves movies, particularly “movies about detectives” (162).

Hired by White, Blue isolates himself in a small apartment and watches Black reading and writing. Blue also uses a notebook to record facts about the case. His work as a detective has kept Blue focused on “the surface of things” (145). The new situation of isolation and stillness unsettles him. As Blue watches Black reading and writing, he turns inward and realizes that his inner self is “an unknown quantity, unexplored and […] dark” (145). Without any clues to go on, Blue resorts to his imagination, writing stories to explain the case to himself. He gradually identifies with Black and loses touch with his former life: “I’m changing […] Little by little, I’m no longer the same” (148). His encounter with his former fiancée reminds Blue that he has reached a point of no return. Unlike Quinn, Blue “[longs] for companionship” (158); however, he remains entangled in Black’s case, which gradually transforms him into a solitary figure: “He feels like a man […] condemned to sit in a room and go on reading a book for the rest of his life” (171). He feels lost and “disappointed in the world” when the facts of the case offer no insight (184). Ultimately, Blue’s goal is to understand the mystery of the case and Black’s real story.

Blue discovers that Black is writing a book and becomes interested in it. He breaks into Black’s room, feeling like he is “entering himself.” Black disguised as White has trapped him in the case, and the only way Blue can understand what is going on is by reading the book. However, as he reads the book he realizes that he already knows the story. With the case still unsolved, Blue leaves, heading toward the unknown.

The unnamed narrator in The Locked Room reveals himself as the writer and narrator of all three stories. He reinforces the metafictional dimension of the trilogy, highlighting the trilogy as his own fictional work. Simultaneously, the narrator remains a fictional character, detached from the real-life author, Paul Auster.

The narrator writes articles for magazines. He has abandoned his early aspirations of being a novelist and writing a significant book: “I did not have such a book inside me” (209). He is not satisfied with his job and considers his writing “just a little short of hack work” (209), but he manages to earn a modest living and becomes known as “a new critic on the rise” (209). The narrator assumes the identity of his childhood friend Fanshawe, a writer, after Fanshawe disappears. He becomes responsible for the publication of Fanshawe’s work and starts to think of its success as his own. This provides the narrator with a sense of purpose and self: “I had stumbled into a cause that justified me and me feel important” (233). Unlike the previous protagonists, the narrator initially chooses companionship over solitude, becoming close to Fanshawe’s wife, Sophie, and son, Ben.

The narrator recalls his lifelong fascination with Fanshawe. The two friends shared a powerful bond during their childhood and adolescence, and the narrator admired Fanshawe’s mysterious and “inaccessible” personality. He thinks that becoming a writer was “natural” for Fanshawe and expresses a certain jealousy of Fanshawe, “a secret feeling that Fanshawe was somehow better” (211). After the publication of Fanshawe’s work, he abandons his previous profession to devote himself to his creative aspirations. Fanshawe’s first letter signals a turning point for the narrator. When he learns that Fanshawe is alive, he feels “panic and fear” at the prospect of losing Sophie and his current life (241). He quickly marries Sophie and adopts Ben. Later they also welcome another son. The narrator becomes more entangled with his friend’s life.

He finds a new creative purpose in writing Fanshawe’s biography. However, the attempt to capture another man’s life exhausts the narrator, and Fanshawe’s character haunts him to the end. On his second visit to Fanshawe’s mother, he ends up having sex with her and realizes his emotions have shifted. The narrator expresses feelings of “hatred” toward Fanshawe and wishes he were dead. At the same time, he becomes obsessed with finding the man and gradually drifts apart from Sophie. However, Fanshawe remains elusive. The narrator can only approach him through memories, letters, and notebooks. The narrator reaches despair during his trip to Paris, searching for clues on Fanshawe. His main goal is to decipher the mystery of Fanshawe’s character and he abandons the biography project. Finally, he realizes that he sees himself through Fanshawe. The narrator wishes to free himself but cannot escape.

On his final meeting with Fanshawe, the narrator demands an explanation. Fanshawe gives him a red notebook he has written in, the only means by which he will communicate with him. The narrator gives up on Fanshawe, tearing out the notebook’s pages. For him, the story remains open-ended.