The Detective Novel: How does City of Glass follow and break that tradition?

Cristian Toro C
The fact that everyone has his/her own social role and implications his or her life is worldly
acknowledged. However, it is common that people have more than one social role, for
instance, a woman can be a mother, a sister, a lover, a friend; a man can be a father, a
worker, a brother, a son, among some other roles. People, as individuals, are called actors in
this society and every social role must be respected and accepted; otherwise, some
problems that may modify our lives may appear. This is closely connected to what happens
to Daniel Quinn in City of Glass, where he sees his life radically changed and must face
many problems due to the fact that he accepts a mission which is not properly at all for him
and is forced to adopt someone elses role. Nonetheless, such fact will be mentioned later
throughout this presentation.
Detective novels have always been strongly focused on the problems present in modern,
urban life, more specifically in crime. However, crime was not recognized at all in Western
social life until the creation of a mass reading public, in the early 1800s. Detective novels
are characterized by a specific structure and characteristics that make them be easily
recognized, such features are crimes, mysteries, clues, suspicious characters, and a clever
detective that is able to solve an almost impenetrable case. There have been many authors
that used their talent writing detective novels, among such writers are Frank Arnau, Emery
Bonet, Dan Brown, Edmund Wallace, Ross McDonald, and one of the most important
authors in history, Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe took an important role regarding detective novels, he was the creator of a genre called
Detective Fiction with his character Auguste Dupin in the short story The Murders in the
Rue Morgue. In this short story, Dupin is a detective who succeeds in a case where two
women are brutally murdered, while authorities have failed in the investigation. The clever
detective Dupincreated by Poesees himself involved in some other detective cases,
such as The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter. In both stories, Poe
used similar strategies to develop Dupins role: a very brilliant detective who uses superior
intelligence to solve very difficult cases.
There is a close relationship between Poes Dupins short stories and Paul Austers City of
Glass. Poe and Austers works are developed in a mysterious way and possess some
specific aspects in common that belong to detective novels; nevertheless, there is a lack of
some other fundamental details in City of Glass that must be present to classify such
story as a classical detective novel. Indeed, Austers story presents some other details that
make it break the classical detective novel tradition. It is absolutely true that every detective
novel must contain a seemingly perfect crime, a suspicious wrongly accused character, the
great power of observation of a detective, and the important moment in which the detective
reveals the followed steps until discovering the real responsible. Such previously mentioned

features do not appear in Austers City of Glass; indeed, the story develops itself in a
very different way. Daniel Quinnthe protagonist of City of Glassis just a detective
novel writer that suddenly sees himself involved in a real detective case where he feels as a
beginner and is forced to think and behave as Max Work (a fictional detective novel that
appears in the stories he writes) to be more successful as a detective, without having good
results. Quinn is not a brilliant detective, does not possess the clever mind of one, tends to
give up easily in the story while noticing that he is not able to solve the case he accepted,
and questions himself about taking the detective role. Therefore, it would not be
appropriate to classify City of Glass as a detective novel.
Everyones life may experience many changes because of disrespecting ones own social
role in life. Sometimes, people are bored of their routine and feel the desire of feeling
something new, a way to break the daily routine. Different situations, such as meeting new
people, seeing ourselves involved in new situations, facing new challenges, among some
other similar characteristics, are the ones that make us behave in an inappropriate way and
contribute to promote some changes in our personality. These characteristics are the ones
that promote problems such as loyalty in couples, lies between people in general, the use of
a false personality to represent or imitate someone else, and other similar issues. These
facts are clearly represented by what happens to Daniel Quinn in City of Glass, where he
realizes that his life has changed a great deal and nothing is the same. Lamentably, it is too
late for him to try to ameliorate his life.