City of Glass: Metafictional Similarities to Don Quixote The novel City of Glass, originally penned by Paul Auster in 1985, was subsequently adapted into a graphic novel by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli in 2004. It closely resembles Cervantes's 1605 masterwork Don Quixote in the delusion of its main character, and in its author's intent. The graphic novel version of City of Glass's characters and their relationship to one another suggest that the novel, in both its frivolous and moral aspects, can be viewed as a modern-day, metafictional version of Don Quixote. The written parts of the adaptation of City of Glass raise questions as to the identity of several characters throughout the novel. Auster uses variegated lettering to represent the input of different characters. Several distinct handwritten fonts appear (in speech bubbles corresponding to the characters speaking them), as well as an omniscient typewritten print that occasionally interjects to point out descriptive or factual failings in the narrative. This type reveals that certain records of Quinn's activity are "less full than the author would have liked" (107), bringing up the issue of the identity of "the author." This mention of "the author" could be taken as referring to the actual writer of the novel, Paul Auster, metafictionally inserting himself into the text, or as the mysterious translator of the notebook. Cervantes would have us believe that Don Quixote was translated by a non-visible Cid Hamete Benengeli, mentioned within its pages, when in reality we know that Cervantes engineered the entire thing. William Wilson serves as City of Glass's representation of Benengeli - a character given credit for writing the detective novels of Quinn, but one who never makes an appearance. In fact, Cervantes "[hires] Don Quixote in disguise to translate the story of Don Quixote" (93), just as the real Auster is similarly hired in disguise as Quinn to translate his own story. Auster masterminds his fictional character's (Quinn's) realization of his identity as an inseparable part of Auster. Another parallel between the two novels occurs if City of Glass's Daniel Quinn is considered to represent Don Quixote. Superficial clues include the similarity of the duo's last names, and the exact match of their initials. A more solid indication is the question Quinn asks on page 129, as to why Don Quixote chose experiencing the adventures in the books he loved as opposed to writing books like them. Unbeknownst to Quinn at the time, this inquiry applies as much to himself as it does to Quixote. Quixote becomes so enamored by the medieval tales he reads that he deludes himself into thinking he is a character in one of them, playing the part of a knight. Quinn enjoys reading detective novels to escape the pain of his past - so much so that he deludes himself into playing the part of a detective (Max Work) in one of his own stories. This comparison leads the reader to the conclusion that Quinn.

1. City of Glass: Metafictional Similarities to Don Quixote
The novel City of Glass, originally penned by Paul Auster in
1985, was subsequently adapted into a graphic novel by Paul
Karasik and David Mazzucchelli in 2004. It closely resembles
Cervantes's 1605 masterwork Don Quixote in the delusion of its
main character, and in its author's intent. The graphic novel
version of City of Glass's characters and their relationship to
one another suggest that the novel, in both its frivolous and
moral aspects, can be viewed as a modern-day, metafictional
version of Don Quixote.
The written parts of the adaptation of City of Glass raise
questions as to the identity of several characters throughout the
novel. Auster uses variegated lettering to represent the input of
different characters. Several distinct handwritten fonts appear
(in speech bubbles corresponding to the characters speaking
them), as well as an omniscient typewritten print that
occasionally interjects to point out descriptive or factual
failings in the narrative. This type reveals that certain records
of Quinn's activity are "less full than the author would have
liked" (107), bringing up the issue of the identity of "the
author." This mention of "the author" could be taken as
referring to the actual writer of the novel, Paul Auster,
metafictionally inserting himself into the text, or as the
mysterious translator of the notebook. Cervantes would have us
believe that Don Quixote was translated by a non-visible Cid
Hamete Benengeli, mentioned within its pages, when in reality
we know that Cervantes engineered the entire thing. William
Wilson serves as City of Glass's representation of Benengeli - a
character given credit for writing the detective novels of Quinn,
but one who never makes an appearance. In fact, Cervantes
"[hires] Don Quixote in disguise to translate the story of Don
Quixote" (93), just as the real Auster is similarly hired in

2. disguise as Quinn to translate his own story. Auster
masterminds his fictional character's (Quinn's) realization of his
identity as an inseparable part of Auster.
Another parallel between the two novels occurs if City of
Glass's Daniel Quinn is considered to represent Don Quixote.
Superficial clues include the similarity of the duo's last names,
and the exact match of their initials. A more solid indication is
the question Quinn asks on page 129, as to why Don Quixote
chose experiencing the adventures in the books he loved as
opposed to writing books like them. Unbeknownst to Quinn at
the time, this inquiry applies as much to himself as it does to
Quixote. Quixote becomes so enamored by the medieval tales he
reads that he deludes himself into thinking he is a character in
one of them, playing the part of a knight. Quinn enjoys reading
detective novels to escape the pain of his past - so much so that
he deludes himself into playing the part of a detective (Max
Work) in one of his own stories.
This comparison leads the reader to the conclusion that Quinn is
presumably an unenlightened personality of the real Auster, just
as Quixote is of Cervantes. Following this train of reason, the
typewritten sections can be identified as the real Auster's
interjections, and logically, simultaneously the enlightened
Quinn's. From this standpoint, when the typewritten voice is
convinced the fictional Auster "behaved badly throughout"
(138), it is because the voice is also the transformed Quinn (or
the real Auster), and feels the fictional Auster should have
provided more help to him in his time of need. Of course, the
real Auster intentionally wrote the fictional Auster as an
indecisive man to give Quinn the chance to discover Quinn's
delusion on his own, as Cervantes did in the guise of Sancho
Panza for Don Quixote's benefit. The real Auster's feigned
adversity toward the fictional Auster may be a metafictional
coup de grace, or simply a device to throw the reader further off
the track of correct identity.

3. Two of Cervantes's possible intentions behind writing Don
Quixote are echoed by Auster's probable purposes in
creating City of Glass. According to the fictional Auster,
Cervantes composed Don Quixote partly "to test the gullibility
of man" (93), which, given the assumption that the characters in
City of Glass truly do represent those in Don Quixote, the real
Auster must have created his novel to also do. Cervantes wished
to determine the extent to which man would tolerate falsehoods
in the name of entertainment. Auster writes a discussion
between Quinn and the fictional Auster in which they talk about
an essay the latter is composing about Don Quixote. In a
metafictional twist, the real Auster is involving his characters in
the composition of a current version of Don Quixote even as
they speak.
Along with investigating man's credulity, Cervantes and Auster
may have written their novels to entertain anyone who might
choose to read them. Cervantes purposely makes the delusions
and failings of Don Quixote seem humorous in order to keep the
book interesting. Auster implies that all books, including his,
should serve to entertain when Quinn sits next to a woman in a
train station who claims a book is "just a book" (49), which
Quinn takes as a blow to his ego. He may also respond
adversely because her nonchalance towards the fiction with
which he is all-consumingly obsessed wounds him. This is a
metafictional moral lesson; Quinn is angry at the woman's
cavalier opinion about books, when, unbeknownst to him, it is
his overly inflated opinion towards them that is causing him to
be unable to separate his own life from that of his main
character, Max Work. Cervantes and Auster address the
readiness of man to accept untruths as a form of entertainment,
but both make clear in the process the need to be able to
separate fact from fiction.
Another example of the public's eagerness to be entertained is

4. the book of Peter Stillman, a man inCity of Glass unhealthily
consumed by his own theories of the fall of civilization. Despite
his delusions, he still manages to trick the readers of his
theories into believing that Henry Dark (a fictional character he
created to make his ideas seem more reputable) took
transcriptions from John Milton. It is ironic that a man deluded
by his own beliefs was able to present an appealing enough
theory to an educated public to "[fool] them all" (73) into
unquestioning belief.
Near the end of City of Glass, its page numbers cease, bringing
into question the novel's metafictional existence as
the notebook it describes. The pages that would be 130 to 135
lose their border, becoming entirely black to all four edges of
the page. This suggests that they are emblematic of
thenotebook itself, which always reflects Quinn's mental state,
since he is its creator. The pages become dark with despair to
represent Quinn chaotically coming to terms with his own
existence only as a fictional character in the real Auster's mind.
Quinn writes of his terror about the impending time "when there
are no more pages in the notebook" (134), which would
necessitate his death, ie, his merging with the real Auster as a
decidedly fictional character and no longer a main identity. This
seems to occur when the notebook, both literally and
figuratively, runs out. The pages afterward take on a different
appearance than any others in the book, becoming entirely
typewritten, with a white background, but still unnumbered.
They appear to be typed, as before, by the enlightened Paul
Auster, who is simultaneously the fictional Quinn. The last page
of the novel, in which Auster states that "[Quinn] will be with
[him] always" (138), serves as a clever metafictional pun.
Auster means not only that he will always remember Quinn, but
also that Quinn is an inextricable part of his identity.
In both Don Quixote and City of Glass, puzzling metafictional
issues of identity, whether that of person or manuscript, are

5. introduced. Cervantes and Auster both realize that the reader is
gullible enough to believe practically any machination of
identity or wild fictive invention for the sole sake of being
entertained. Only upon close inspection can the reader deduce
that he is being fooled. In this way, everyone who reads City of
Glass himself becomes a Don Quixote, willingly subscribing to
fiction for the sake of entertainment. Cervantes and Auster both
argue that when the appeal of fiction surpasses that of real life,
the inability to separate truth from delusion becomes
problematic, and possibly dangerous.