A review by kurtwombat
City of Glass: The Graphic Novel by Paul Karasik
5.0
CITY OF GLASS is my favorite of Paul Auster’s NEW YORK TRILOGY.
From my review of NEW YORK TRILOGY: Each of the three books is loosely structured as a detective story. Very quickly, the mystery changes…and then changes again. What seems straightforward slowly bends in different directions. You could read each novel and argue that you have read the same thing three times…or make the opposite argument as well. When I think of the books I see three giant arrows pointing toward an empty center. Not empty, but something I can’t yet see. Each book is from the point of view of it’s detective. They proceed logically but as what they seek starts to shift, so does their logical footing. Each book starts as a lark, but soon shudders into darkness. Is this darkness the absence of love…or the penalty of imposing order on chaos…or even the personal hell awaiting writers facing blank sheets?
That description doesn’t scream graphic novel. Most novel to graphic novel translations tend to be too literal and literally boring. This, however, I found thrilling. Feels less an adaptation of the novel than and adaptation of my reaction to the novel. The moods and dislocations of characters—disorientation of the reader all managed in interesting and unique fashion. To achieve what the book achieves without simply being a carbon copy of the book is a marvelous deed. The only one of the multiple graphic novel translations of other works I've read to succeed and deserve to exist on it’s own.
From my review of NEW YORK TRILOGY: Each of the three books is loosely structured as a detective story. Very quickly, the mystery changes…and then changes again. What seems straightforward slowly bends in different directions. You could read each novel and argue that you have read the same thing three times…or make the opposite argument as well. When I think of the books I see three giant arrows pointing toward an empty center. Not empty, but something I can’t yet see. Each book is from the point of view of it’s detective. They proceed logically but as what they seek starts to shift, so does their logical footing. Each book starts as a lark, but soon shudders into darkness. Is this darkness the absence of love…or the penalty of imposing order on chaos…or even the personal hell awaiting writers facing blank sheets?
That description doesn’t scream graphic novel. Most novel to graphic novel translations tend to be too literal and literally boring. This, however, I found thrilling. Feels less an adaptation of the novel than and adaptation of my reaction to the novel. The moods and dislocations of characters—disorientation of the reader all managed in interesting and unique fashion. To achieve what the book achieves without simply being a carbon copy of the book is a marvelous deed. The only one of the multiple graphic novel translations of other works I've read to succeed and deserve to exist on it’s own.