> Has anybody read CITY OF GLASS by Paul
> Auster?...does anybody know of other
stimulating
> thriller/noir works that break convention
or
> introduce new techniques? That's what
interests
> me.
Auster is something of an uneven writer, but at his best he's
just stunning. The "New York Trilogy" is probably his
best-known work, but it's not his best (in my opinion), and
it's certainly not the only work of his that tackles noir
themes in a novel way. THE MUSIC OF CHANCE is a surreal story
of two men trapped in a fate they don't deserve when a
sinister poker game goes awry, and has a lot in common with
the "doomed men" novels of Cornell Woolrich and James M.
Cain. And LEVIATHAN, while primarily a non-genre novel, does
tell the story of a serial bomber and ends with a really
beautiful twist.
You might also want to check out the crime-themed stories of
Jorge Luis Borges, such as "The Garden of Forking Paths"
(first published in English in Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine, as fate would have it) and
"Death and the Compass."
And Joyce Carol Oates' contribution in the most recent BEST
AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES, "The High School Girlfriend," dips
a toe into similarly postmodern waters.
--Charles
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