The New York Trilogy

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was now being released from prison after serving fourteen years. Fearing that his mentally unstable father will try to hurt him, Peter hires Quinn--thinking that he is detective Paul Auster--to follow Stillman.1 It is at this point in the novel that my argument begins. In this particular passage the narrator recounts Quinn’s first two weeks of following Stillman. Through this passage I will analyze the themes of routines and brokenness and prove three things: first, that Quinn follows his own routine, which attempts to both mimic and break from Stillman’s; second, that while Stillman’s routine may seem constant, there is a heavy undertone of brokenness showcased not only in his actions, but also in the objects he collects; and, third, that although the objects Stillman collects may seem to be without a purpose, they are actually very important artifacts.
Stillman’s routine is simple: every morning he leaves the hotel by eight, wearing the same overcoat, and with the same bag; he ...

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the day, which is pretty close to the time that Quinn is eating. After two weeks of observing and documenting Stillman’s every move, Quinn should be able to safely assume that Stillman eats before he leaves.
In fact, Quinn documents everything that Stillman does just as Stillman documents every item that he collects off the street. Even those things that he didn’t understand, Quinn recorded:

What Stillman did on these walks remained something of a mystery to Quinn. He could, of course, see with his own eyes what happened, and all these things he dutifully recorded in his red notebook. 4

The detailed descriptions lend accuracy to Quinn’s observations. It’s as if no action was ...

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