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Title: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0375724834 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.31
Rating: 4
Summary: A most original novel!
Comment: Lionel Esrog, a young man with Tourette's syndrome, is one of a group of youngsters hand-picked by Frank Minna from St. Vincent's Home for Boys to eventually become part of his "Minna Men". At first working for Minna as moving boys, these young men later become his personal "detectives", working under the cover of a car rental service. On one of their jobs, Esrog and a partner suddenly realize realize that their boss has been taken captive and is being sped away by car through the streets of New York city. They must rush after him and not allow him to be lost from view. The race is on!
Lethem gives his readers a wonderfully creative and somewhat unusual novel. Throughout the story, Lionel displays the aberrant behavior of a person afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. Since Lionel is the protagonist, the reader not only experiences Lionel's verbal outbursts and physical tics, but is also given some insight into their manifestation . The story is a mystery, and at times almost becomes a satire of life in New York city. It is fast-paced and funny, with creative word-play, occasional amusing situation descriptions, and even a few (good) jokes. The writing is done so well that, once this story has begun, the book is often hard to put down. As the novel draws to a close, the plot tends to become a bit more complicated and confusing. Nevertheless, it's an exciting, entertaining story and one that should not be missed.
Rating: 5
Summary: contagious enthusiasm
Comment: Every day I drive past a big sign that says BAILEYS LIQUOR. I'm beginning to overcome the compulsion to scream "Lick her, Bailey," as I pass, but only after a lot of psychotherapy. What have you done to my head, Lethem? I never paid any attention to the voices before I read this book; now I am uncomfortably aware that lots of things go on in our heads that we aren't paying attention to. Luckily, I don't have Tourette's like poor Lionel, or an unsolved murder to obsess about, but this book has given me plenty of, well, stuff to obsess about. The kind that keeps you awake at night and makes you wonder where the line between normal and nuts is these days. Who's the most normal person in this whole book? Freakshow himself, and the fact that we accept the wiseguys and buddhaheads as normal is disturbing. Whoops, gotta go; time for the nurse to bring my medication.
Rating: 5
Summary: He does it every time...
Comment: Though not as philosophical and brooding as "Amnesia Moon", nor as rapid and cranky as "Gun With Occasional Music", "Motherless Brooklyn" manages to come out on top or very close to the top of Lethem's impressive heap. In portraying a would-be detective with Tourettes syndrome, Lethem has created a whole new rhythm and syncopation to his prose, a truly brilliant way to write a novel that comes from the viewpoint of man who cannot be still. The characters are unavoidably beautiful mirrors, fascinating character studies in a wonderful world of nostalgia and crime. But for one 7-page lull that dropped the otherwise breakneck pace of the prose, it was truly a book that I COULD NOT put down; rarely do I read books in one sitting. What can I say that has not been said before? Lethem is THE American original.
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Title: Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0312858787 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0312862202 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon ISBN: 0312282990 Publisher: Picador Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: As She Climbed Across the Table (Vintage Contemporaries) by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0375700129 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0375703918 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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