Jonathan Lethem Books

I just finished reading the new Modern Library edition of "It Happened in Boston?", which I had first read 35 years ago. It still seems as startling as it was then; all these strange characters, and the mad protagonist. What a feat of imagination! I had actually expected it to feel somewhat dated but it didn't - quite the contrary, it seemed completely of the moment. I think this edition should find a new audience, among readers who did not exist when it was first published.

Russell Greenan penned a masterpiece with this book that, were he a British novelist, might have had a shot at a Booker Prize. Absolutely brilliant! None of Greenan's other books measures up, but this one is so luminously creatively intelligent that it was an impossible act to follow in kind.

Make no mistake, this quirky, sparkling page-turner is a joy to read----with one major flaw. On almost every page, this particular reader, in any event, cannot help but be reminded of another, greater novel, The Recognitions by William Gaddis. The thematic and plot similarities are simply too great to be coincidental. The Recognitions was out of print as well until a few years ago after it was listed in The Greatest 100 Novels of the Twentieth Century. I am not knocking Greenan's book. But The Recognitions is by far the more magnificent and profound novel dealing with an artist who is conned into painting forgeries and many, many other things beside. On the other hand, not too many people, I've found, are willing to take on this 1,000 page, closely-printed, spellbinder of a book. Perhaps it is best to regard Greenan's book then as a condensed version of the Gaddis book---Not a al Reader's Digest! It's far too well-written for that!-In Greenan's Afterword, he avers, "What authors put down on paper springs from....all the books they have read." There can be no doubt in the mind of anybody that has read it that The Recognitions was one of these key influences.

So, for those deeply intrigued by the themes and artistry of this book: Close the Greenan, open thy Gaddis.

In spite of its literary brilliance and its narrative genius, there will be people who won't like Boston?. I don't say this as a lofty proclamation or to cast aspersions on those folks. Consider a five-star restaurant's most expensive and well-touted fresh salmon entree. It may, in fact, be a meal of the highest quality and finest ingredients, but, hey, some people just don't like fish.

This book is populated by intriguing characters (our artistically brilliant and unnamed protagonist's goal is to assassinate God, if that tells you anything) with curious and delicate lives that flirt with the fringes of madness before plunging in headlong. It is really pointless to try to explain the basic plot, since it holds no more prominence than the philosophical inquiries and didactic ponderings that motivate it. These underlying ideas never drag the story down, as one might suspect, although they are probably at fault when it comes to why some might like this meal and some might flat out reject.

In kind, the ending does leave something to be desired, since it is a resolution of the ambiguous kind. Greenan doesn't kowtow to fortune cookie solutions, and he leaves the point of the book (as well as the answer to those inquiries and ponderings) in the hands of the reader, who may either be delighted to answer, or disgusted with the presumption. Again, it's a matter of taste.

I, for one, was licking my fingers when I was done.

I decided to read this book reading all the 5star reviews on this site, well i have gone through the book cover to cover, there really isn't much that's interesting here, besides maybe how his girlfriend snatched the paintings from him, you'd probably be better off reading CRIME AND PUNISHMENT OR THE ALIENIST.

Better written than many novels today and captures a flavor of yesteryear. The ending drags out a bit, but it is fun to see where the author takes you.

Dr George Matthews, a psychiatrist, encounters a patient who claims he is paid by a leprechaun to wear a flower in his hair. Another, he claims, pays him to whistle at Carnegie Hall during performances. A third pays him to give quarters away. Jacob Blunt wants Dr Matthews to confirm that he's mad. Dr Matthews is curious, so he accompanies his patient to a rendezvous with one of the leprechauns. His name is Eustace and he isn't at all pleased to see the doctor.

So begins the Deadly Percheron. After that it gets strange. First published in 1946 this unique murder mystery transcends the boundaries of the genre. It's noir, it's nightmarish, it's compulsive. John Franklin Bardin drags the reader into a world where the nature of identity is constantly questioned. Is our hero who he says he is? Can he be trusted? Is he, in fact, sane? Reality, as seen through his eyes, is a shifting kaleidoscope of memories.

As the murders mount up the fragments of his shattered psyche are slotted together. Slowly reality stabilises. At the end of the novel, but only then, it all makes sense. Who killed Frances Raye? Well, now, let's start at the beginning..."Jacob Blunt was my last patient. He came into my office wearing a scarlet hibiscus in his curly blond hair. He sat down in the easy chair across from my desk, and said, "Doctor, I think I'm losing my mind.""

I should confess that I did not know about the author before I bought this novel. In fact I bought it for my mother as a Xmas present.After reading it she told me, "it' s amazing you have to read it too!!!"
What a surprise!! She was right, it is one of the best novels I've ever read. A cocktail of madness, crime and human nature that will make you read without pause till you finish it.
The fact that Bardin' s mother suffered from a mental disorder made the author to include this thematic in this novel and part of his work
So if you want to read one of the best novels you can find buy it now...you will not regret.

Dr George Matthews, a psychiatrist, encounters a patient who claims he is paid by a leprechaun to wear a flower in his hair. Another, he claims, pays him to whistle at Carnegie Hall during performances. A third pays him to give quarters away. Jacob Blunt wants Dr Matthews to confirm that he's mad. Dr Matthews is curious, so he accompanies his patient to a rendezvous with one of the leprechauns. His name is Eustace and he isn't at all pleased to see the doctor.

So begins the Deadly Percheron. After that it gets strange. First published in 1946 this unique murder mystery transcends the boundaries of the genre. It's noir, it's nightmarish, it's compulsive. John Franklin Bardin drags the reader into a world where the nature of identity is constantly questioned. Is our hero who he says he is? Can he be trusted? Is he, in fact, sane? Reality, as seen through his eyes, is a shifting kaleidoscope of memories.

As the murders mount up the fragments of his shattered psyche are slotted together. Slowly reality stabilises. At the end of the novel, but only then, it all makes sense. Who killed Frances Raye? Well, now, let's start at the beginning..."Jacob Blunt was my last patient. He came into my office wearing a scarlet hibiscus in his curly blond hair. He sat down in the easy chair across from my desk, and said, "Doctor, I think I'm losing my mind.""

Where has Paula Fox been all of my life? How was I to know her sentences listened and heard so clearly. She's so precise with her language and has no place for cant or the vocabulary of 'hyper realism'. If you read nothing else read Paula Fox. Thank you for reminding us how important the social novel is; some of us seem to have forgotten.

Like Fox's masterpiece, Desperate Characters, the main character, George, is eviscerated from a lack of meaning in his life, in spite of his job as a teacher and his decent wife. A life devoted to provisionalism, prudence, hoarding, reason, the same kind of life embraced by the narrator in Melville's "Bartleby," proves to result in a spiritually bankrupt soul. George earnestly seeks in vain for meaning and in doing so the novel sheds light on the bleakness of provisionalism as the modernist philosophy which the American middle class championed so blindly in the 1960s, the era in which this novel is written. George may fail in his search for meaning, but the novel is a triumph of vigorous prose, muscular syntax, and an uncompromising, angry critique of the smug middle-class complacency that afflicts too many of us.

George Mecklin is a teacher of English in New York. He is married to Emma, they're both in their early thirties and they live in the country, a small place called Harmon. George has got an unemployed and divorced sister, Lila. Claude is her young son. George goes to work, attends staff meetings, spends his evenings with Emma, worries about money...
It is precisely this uneventful way of life that makes Mrs Fox's novel interesting. It is the tedious and habitual way George leads his life, the utter emptiness and uselessness of his daily activities, almost as though he were living against his own volition. An "attitude of defeat" is a description used for Emma but it may equally adequately be applied to George, an attitude also shown by his clothes which hang on their hangers "like humble effigies of himself". Even his trying to help a lost youth, Ernest Jenkins, fails because George, "the goddamned fool", can only offer him dead heroes and dead poets. But George is lucid enough to be aware that he suffers from a profound disaffection with his life. "Poor George! I guess you have as many troubles as the rest of us" says one of the characters. Indeed, it is a novel about all the troubles one has to cope with in one's dreary everyday existence, masterfully put down on paper by Mrs Fox.

Sentence for sentence, Paula Fox is the genuine article. This is the book you want to read on the subway, the commuter rail, in the coffee shop, your place of preference.

brilliant writing by a brilliant under-appreciated artist/writer/ songwriter who transcends the limits of many genres, boundaries, expectations

Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002 is the third volume in a series which hand-picks the year's best writing about music, covering all genres and providing a host of literary articles reflecting on music's personalities, evolution, and content. From a survey of the underground New Orleans rap scene from an insider's stand to a composer of haiku for Eminem and details on Bob Dylan and Louie Armstrong, Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002 holds something for everyone.

...and Frank Zappa is still wrong: rock music journalism does not have to be people who can't write interviewing people who can't speak for people who can't read. This installment of the Da Capo "Best Music Writing" series features a wide range of pieces both stylistically and in terms of subject matter. Nik Cohn's article "Soljas" on the New Orleans rap scene, originally published in Granta, is an astonishing piece of writing and would deserve to be in a collection of "Best Writing of 2002," music-oriented or not. Three other contributions are striking for their biographical writing, illuminating broader, non-musical themes: RJ Smith on the LA enigma Korla Pandit, Michael Hall on Texas psychedelic rocker Roky Ericson, and Matthew C. Duersten on jazz diva Anita O'Day. There are more traditional musicological contributions (David Cantwell "Help Me Make It Through the Night") and humorous satire from the Onion. A very enjoyable volume. Would make a good gift for anyone interested in popular music or just good writing.

Many years ago I read the story "Killdozer" in an anthology book of some sort, and never forgot the story. I didn't know anything about the author, and had no idea that he wrote many more stories beyond the one I had had the opportunity to read. Then I stumbled across this series of books in Amazon, bought one, read it, loved it, and now have all ten volumes in my collection.

So here's my verdict: Theodore Sturgeon was not just one of the best writers of Science Fiction; he wasn't just one of the best writers of short stories. He was, one of the best writers ever, period. While the stories are cloaked in the veneer of science fiction, they are in fact, stories of deep insight into the human condition. You cannot read these volumes and not be touched, moved, and inspired. Don't miss the opportunity to read some of these wonderful stories. And if you're truly inspired, get the short novel More Than Human.

It's Sept 2006, and I just spotted the following listed on the Locus site, scheduled for June 2007 release. I suppose this is good news, though it means I'm going to have to buy another bookcase.

Sturgeon, Theodore * When You Care, When You Love: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume XI * (North Atlantic, cln, hc)

This latest volume is again an excellent addition to the series. I just wish we would be able to find out what's going on with the rest of the books: this was originally supposed to be a ten volume collection but since this latest volume only goes through 1960, there is clearly more material to be collected. Some of the volumes are of shorter length then others, which also puzzles me. Material isn't being left out to keep down the page count?

In any case, stories like "The Graveyard Reader" show the sensitivity and skill that only a master like Sturgeon can convey in a short story. If you're already a fan, you know this; if not, buy the book. Sturgeon truly was one of the finest American short story writers ever.

Let me just start off by saying this book is OFF THE HOOK! This book is up there with Subway Art, Dondi White and Freight Train Graffiti. This is a book written by real artist that influenced the graff game at a whole other level. I was lucky enough in my youth to have met Todd "Reas" James and he was one of the coolest writers I ever met. He gave me outlines and would just kick it with me even though I was new to the scene. His style is still seen today in so many writers doing their thing today. The interviews in this book are amazing! The photos are clear and I like how they show the writers at that time and what influenced them. For anyone a fan of graffiti or any new writers looking to get schooled this is a must have.

In the same league as classic books like

watching my name go by
getting up
subway art
spraycan art
dondi white

What is it like to grow up a white child in a black world, "yoked" in a double-bind that keeps you small and paralyzed? It's not something you can talk about, and I never saw anyone so astutely describe the experience until I read this book.

Lethem's semi-autobiographical novel reveals itself gradually, like a multi-layered painting. During his early childhood, the protagonist lurches zombie-like through a thick fog, smothered by grim surroundings and events that he cannot control or even understand. Gradually, as he matures, the fog starts to lift. And we see how his victimization has carved into Dylan's psyche a complex love-hate obsession with blacks and a burning need to be a hero - or maybe to get revenge.

This book is about betrayals, about the illusory nature of autonomy and choice, about the costs (and rewards) of fulfilling one's class and race destiny by leaving one's roots behind.

And the ring? Is it magical realism, as some have proposed? I see it more as a metaphor. Initially, it is about power and the freedom of escape. Later, it stands for invisibility, the feeling of being unseen and unknown by those around you.

The topic is painful and the style meandering. But it is a great book.

What is it like to grow up a white child in a black world, "yoked" in a double-bind that keeps you small and paralyzed? It's not something you can talk about, and I never saw anyone so astutely describe the experience until I read this book.

Lethem's semi-autobiographical novel reveals itself gradually, like a multi-layered painting. During his early childhood, the protagonist lurches zombie-like through a thick fog, smothered by grim surroundings and events that he cannot control or even understand. Gradually, as he matures, the fog starts to lift. And we see how his victimization has carved into Dylan's psyche a complex love-hate obsession with blacks and a burning need to be a hero - or maybe to get revenge.

This book is about betrayals, about the illusory nature of autonomy and choice, about the costs (and rewards) of fulfilling one's class and race destiny by leaving one's roots behind.

And the ring? Is it magical realism, as some have proposed? I see it more as a metaphor. Initially, it is about power and the freedom of escape. Later, it stands for invisibility, the feeling of being unseen and unknown by those around you.

The topic is painful and the style meandering. But it is a great book.

The book is a collection of essays and ideas about the future. But what is the future? It can be a frontier, promising wealth and a high standard of living. It can be a vision of a city of the future, shiny and smelling of gas. The collection includes one story and even a future game and also a time about...well, timelines. From cell phones in the Philippines to Heaven's Gate, explain mankind's many futures for yourself. Like it or not, this book really forces one's mind to expand. A must for any sci-fi fan or person interested in the many facets of history.

This is a great book and very original. It blends together originality, an insight into Tourette's syndrome and a detective novel without losing anything on the way.

Highly recommended.

His short stories are wildly creative. And his introduction to an extraordinarily well-written and well-plotted book It Happened in Boston? (20th Century Rediscoveries) by Russell Greenan was a bonus !

In "Motherless Brooklyn", Lethem created a world of small time. Small time mobsters employ much smaller time Frank Minna who employs tiny time Minna Men, of whom Lionel Essrog is the star. His star status is not obvious to everyone. To most around him he officially is a freak, with outbursts of verbal gobbledygook and repetitive jerky motions which scare and befuddle people. Minna, his one real friend, has known him for a smart guy all along, but this is only revealed by the end of the book. And it is at the end of the book that Minna's wife sees Lionel the way Minna saw him and that Lionel ends up earning respectful treatment even from the mobsters.

The readers are in a much better position. We see Lionel as a star from the very first pages: we would much rather listen to him than to any other character in the book. His Tourette's tics are hilarious, and his irony, borne out of inability to suppress them, no less amusing ("You are Lionel Essrog, aren't you?" - "Unreliable Cheesegrub", I corrected). This freaky schlemiel, this giant fly on the wall turns out to be the star student of Minna's and acts as a veritable wise guy: he takes matters into his hands, figures out interests and roles of one organization and 5-6 individuals involved, avenges the death of his friend and negotiates a saner life for him and his friends.

The spirited portrait of Lionel is fresh and memorable. The supporting characters are cast in vivid colors: take the colossal Polish hit man squeezing the juices out of kumquats or a flock of nervous doormen playing mafia...

A beautiful portrait in a fetching frame.

When I heard of an upcoming movie with Edward Norton (one of my favorite actors), and discovered it would be based on a Jonathan Lethem novel, I was compelled to read "Motherless Brooklyn" for myself. I'm new to Lethem's work, and so it was with great relish that I found myself swept into the rich and strange world of a man with Tourette's.

Lionel Essrog is a masterful creation, one of those fictional characters that can carry, even overwhelm, a story--as he does here. He's an orphan, a kid growing into a man on the streets of Brooklyn. Lethem opens his story with a stake-out and then the untimely--and by no means natural--passing of a fatherly figure in Essrog's life. From there, Lethem leads us through the rabbit warrens of Essrog's thinking processes, while Essrog tries to deduce the perpetrator of the crime. Essrog's character and his interactions with others, not to mention his own internal struggles, elevate this average mystery plot into something more.

Essrog is alternately funny, wise, and eccentric. At times, I found myself simply weary of being in his presence. This underlines Lethem's ability to capture the ticcing personality of his protagonist, but it also led to occasional distractions for me. Or maybe I was simply mirroring. Without Essrog's rants and rambles, the book would be cut in half, leaving a bare-bones mystery.

If you enjoy memorable and quirky characters in your novels, this book is one not to be missed. I can't wait to see Ed Norton's portrayal of Essrog, and I can only hope they capture Lethem's magic on the screen.

An old friend of mine gave me this book as a gift. He is my only real connection with Brooklyn. I visited him there several times when he lived on Court Street and we walked its length while he told me stories about his experiences in the neighborhood and the minor wiseguys who sat at the table outside the Italian grocery across the street from his apartment.

Motherless Brooklyn was a gift he chose presumably because of this brief, shared Court Street experience. Much of Motherless Brooklyn takes place on our around Court Street and its place names like Cobble Hill and Carroll Garden are familiar to me. It was a sweet gift.

I've just finished reading it and I really enjoyed it. It was difficult to put down.

It is an endearing story of New York - endearing in spite of its themes of homicide and betrayal. The narrator - an orphan, a borderline gangster/hood with a serious case of Tourette's Syndrome endears himself to the reader.

I loved a scene later in the book that took place in Coastal Maine. It was written by someone who clearly understands and loves the region.