Back in the 90’s Bob Callahan and Art Spiegelman founded Neon Lit.

“The language and attitudes found in these books derive historically from the  great hard-boiled crime novels of the 1920’s. The stark sense of black and white shadow derives from the Noir films of a generation later. Both traditions merge, and are renewed, in these intelligent and handsome picture paperbacks.”

I thought this was a terrific concept and was delighted to find the book half price at my local comic shop. Through inventive storytelling techniques and evocative and strong artwork, they bring Paul Auster’s City of Glass to life.

Not so much a detective story as a meditation on identity, this book begins with Daniel Quinn getting a mysterious phone call in the middle of the night, asking for the detective Paul Auster. He tells the caller they must have the wrong number. But it settles in his mind and after the caller tries a couple of more times, he decides to impersonate Auster. He meets with the mysterious Peter Stillman, in search of his abusive father, also Peter Stillman. And then things get weird. 

The story kept turning in and in on itself, with characters inhabiting more than one person or reality at a time. The elder Stillman appears to be a religious nut, in search of the True Language of God and Quinn/Auster becomes more and more obsessed with the quest, losing whatever tenuous grasp he ever had on reality. Intensely thought provoking read.

Now I am on the hunt for the other book in the series, Barry Giffords sequel to Wild At Heart, Perdita Durango.