Ghosts: The New York Trilogy, Volume 2.

This is the second novel in the author's New York Trilogy, the first of which, City of Glass, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America's "Edgar" award. Here, a private eye named Blue is hired by White to follow and report on Black. Blue's problem is that Black does little more than sit at a table in his Brooklyn Heights apartment and write. Months pass and Blue can stand the non-activity no longer. He begins to intervene in Black's life and learns that Black too is a private detective who is reporting on a man who does nothing but sit in a window and write. Finally, Blue breaks into Black's room, beats him severely and steals his pages. Auster, who also writes poetry, begins Blue's tale on the day of his own birth, suggesting, along with the unresolved ending, meanings wider than the story's narrow space and time. Nevertheless, carried along by carefully wrought, unadorned prose, the tale still satisfies.