Contemporary Fiction (well maybe not that contemporary)

Since we are organizing the Colloquium this year I have dedicated my time to read some of the books we will find in the event. Due to the popularity and wide knowledge of Paul Auster, he has become almost a "classic" in this event, and this year seems to have no absence. I rememeber I read a couple of years ago The New York Trilogy and later Smole & Blue in the Face.
This winter I decided to re-read the book in order to have a more fresh memory of the different approaches this three novels can have. I now can say that I have developed more as a student than when I read it and I have been thinking of several connections with other works. For example, (and I know that to some it may seem repetitive and boring) in Ian MacEwan's Atonement (which actually I am developing the paper for the colloquium) shares several characteristics. Many critics have developed the idea of "Metafiction" in the current postmodern novel. In this group you can consider MacEwan, Banville, Coetzee, Izhiguro and even Lessing. Auster does not derive from this concept and the point I am trying to make is the creation per se. In Coetzee's novels it is the creation of something in order to achieve certain effect: language to represent, fiction to create. In Izhiguro is the urge for remembering the past. In MacEwan I would say is how far can the mind create, and in which ways the reader, the writer and the narrative voice is involved with the story.
I would like to quote this passage from City of Glass, and after it I think that my point should be cleared.


"What happens when a thing no longer performs its function? Is it still the thing or has it become something else? [...] The word, however, as remained the same. Therefore, it can no longer express the thing." (93-94)

Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy. New York: Penguin, 1990.


This passage expresses tone thing that critics have not focused enough, refering to this topic of fiction, and that is certainty. In which degree can we, the author and the narrative voice can be certain of what is telling... That is an answer that Auster indeed answers but in the case of MacEwan, we will see dear reader, when you attend to our Colloquium.