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rodakor09's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kfrench1008's review against another edition
5.0
The third and most emotionally engaging of the New York Trilogy books.
cme314's review against another edition
1.0
Would I have liked this book if it weren’t a racist piece of s$&@ in which the only Black people were nameless, faceless, dehumanized sex workers? Probably not. I read it just because I had read the first two and wanted to know how they were connected. Probably should have googled it. I regret every second I spent on it.
cora_steffani's review against another edition
1.0
I shouldn't have trusted a magazine to buy a book.
Only the first chapter was interesting,but it's one of the worst books I've ever read.
I wasted my money!!
If it was a bit longer,I would be in a mad house now!
Only the first chapter was interesting,but it's one of the worst books I've ever read.
I wasted my money!!
If it was a bit longer,I would be in a mad house now!
wendyse's review against another edition
4.0
Excepcional. Un gran cierre para la trilogía. A veces odio a sus personajes, a veces los entiendo y aveces me reflejo y me odio un poco. Es otro libro que tendré constantemente en mis pensamientos, por mucho tiempo.
aceitunarellenadesaber's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
3.5
glenncolerussell's review against another edition
5.0
“It seems to me now that Fanshawe was always there. He is the place where everything begins for me, and without him I would hardly know who I am.” So begins The Locked Room, Paul Auster’s final novel in his New York Trilogy (City of Glass is Volume 1 and Ghosts is Volume 2) wherein an unnamed first person narrator tells the tale using the simple, straightforward language of detective fiction. In this way, the novel makes for easy peasy, enjoyable reading.
But underneath this hard-boiled linguistic skin, oh my goodness, we encounter the narrator, a writer by profession, navigating the choppy waters of passion and commitment, forever brooding on an entire range of topics: life and death, self and other, childhood and memory, friendship and fatherhood, love and hate, reading and writing, self-definition and self-identity.
In a strange, offbeat way, all the philosophic reflections and ruminations give Auster’s short novel an irresistible drive. Fanshawe was a writer, leaving boxes of novels, journals, poetry and plays to be read and judged. Fanshawe also leaves his beautiful wife, Sophie, and his baby boy. Sophie contacts the narrator, who was Fanshawe’s dearest friend, to do the reading and judging. To tell more than these few facts would be to tell too much. Let me simply say that once I started reading The Locked Room, I couldn’t put it down.
American author Paul Auster, born 1947