Ghosts by Paul Auster

Ghosts by Paul Auster is a bizarre detective story written in third person, about a man name Blue who was hired by White to watch Black on Orange Street.  From the beginning Blue is skeptical about what exactly White’s reason for the surveillance and how long this assignment would last. Blue begins his job immediately, he watches Black from the apartment across the street for a year, sends his report as instructed by White week after week. Blue becomes frustrated with the inactivity and the unknowing because after a year nothing is as it appears.

            Blue’s job of “tailing” Black begins to consume him and he questions the true identity of Black.  He begins to lose a sense of himself so much so that he question “that the man is not really there, that even though he knows he is seeing him, it is more than likely that he is the only one who can”.  Blue creates identities to try and get closer to Black being a homeless man, to the painter and even a salesman. His disguises as a salesman was to bring him closer to understanding but it only begins to make things more complicated. Black reveal to Blue that he is a detective and his assignment is the exact same assignment as Blue’s. Watching Black provided Blue with a sense of freedom, to think, to feel and reflect while in this empty room. It allowed him to no be so consumed in the world because in that room with no TV, cellphone or Internet the world didn’t exist.

            This novel was very interesting because the author wrote everything in the present as basic and as simple as possible, using colors for everyone names, never using quotes for conversations held possibly because they were all in Blue’s or maybe it was Black’s head. Only facts and detailed information provided were those of the past like the stories of his father, and the father and son who built the Brooklyn Bridge, which says that nothing right now is for sure because the present anything is possible. This is said when he writes “but the present is no less dark than the past, and its mystery is equal to anything the future might hold. Like other pieces we’ve read Ghosts is filled with contradictions of not only the words written but also the thoughts going through Blue’s head.