Paul Auster

Outer characterization

Paul Auster is an important character in the novel City of Glass. Up until Quinn visits him, the readers expect Paul Auster to be a private detective working at the Auster Detective Agency (Chapter 1, 50%). He is supposed to be “the best man in the city” (Chapter 3, 78%). 

However, as it turns out, Auster is not a detective but a writer, just like Quinn (Chapter 10, 25%). He lives in Manhattan, on Riverside Drive (Chapter 10, 8%) with his wife, Siri, and his son, Daniel (Chapter 10, 92%). He is described as “a tall dark fellow in his mid-thirties, with rumpled clothes and a two-day beard” (Chapter 10, 8%).

Because of his name and the information that we have on him, Paul Auster is, up to a point, a persona of the writer himself. 

Inner characterization

Auster initially seems to share many of Quinn’s own personality traits. In fact, after Quinn tells Auster about his involvement with Peter and Virginia Stillman, Auster admits that he would have acted in the same manner Quinn had (Chapter 10, 90%). He does not show any signs of being surprised or scandalized by Quinn’s rather immoral and deceiving actions when it comes to the Stillmans. This suggests...