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Title: Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, David Aaron Baker ISBN: 0-7393-0646-4 Publisher: Random House Audio Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 11 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (45 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: strong moments overshadowed by weaker ones and pace
Comment: There are some beautiful moments in the Fortress of Solitude--moments of crystalline description, of poetic evocation of time and place, moments of heartbreaking human interaction. But for me, these moments just didn't hold together long enough or happen often enough.
The novel follows Dylan Ebdus, known as "whiteboy" to those around him on Dean Street due to the rarity of his skin color, as he grows up and out of the Brooklyn neighborhood. While we see Dylan from five through middle-age, most of the book focuses on his young teen years and especially his friendship with Mingus Rude, a friendship which goes on and off through the years. Both boys are motherless. Dylan's liberal-minded mother has left him to his painter father who has given up a promising artist career to work obsessively on an abstract painting on film while Mingus lives with his father, Barret Junior--a once-famous singer who spirals into drugs and obscurity. Both fathers threaten to take their children down with them, both father try to rise out of their depths.
Other main characters include another young white boy even further down the junior and high school hierarchy than Dylan and a street tough who is a running physical and psychological threat to Dylan over the years.
Many have lauded the evocation of 1970's Brooklyn--the poetic recreation of that world of stickball and skully and comic books and stoopball and gentrification. And there is, as mentioned, some truly amazing writing put to that purpose. But for all the loving detail, it never felt intimate enough to evoke much feeling to me. Some of the pop references felt like set pieces or throw-away time markers, some sections were overly long and others not long enough, some had powerful emotive effects (the section of skully for instance) and others seemed recitation of cold descriptive facts.
Part of the problem was that the characters never truly felt fully-formed or real to me, especially Mingus, so I cared even less about the setting. A lot of time is spent on early Dylan to good effect but he starts to pale as a character as the book goes on and is not particularly likable or more importantly interesting as an adult. Mingus is too often too removed (both literally and figuratively) and therefore too many of the character "tags" associated with him--graffiti, drug use, drug dealing--have the feel of cliche rather than character development. The other white boy, Arthur, I found too often simply unbelievable in his speech, which was too bad since it was a distraction from his actions, which could have had much more of an emotional impact had I accepted him as a person.
The magical-realism part involving a ring which can supposedly make the wearer fly or invisible among other powers dependent upon its user, feels a bit forced and uneven; it intervenes clumsily at times, more effectively at others. The same is true of the comic book motif which moves from painfully belabored to beautifully evocative of desire and loneliness and despair and power.
Overall, the book just didn't hold together for me. It was too episodic in nature without adding up to a whole greater than its parts and the characters were just not fully formed enough for me to care despite the plot's weaknesses and uneven pace. The best section for me was the middle, past the first 100 pages or so. I was tempted several times in those first 100 to put it down, and even more so once Dylan moved into his older teens and on to college then adulthood, but the potential and the occasional gem of a sentence or paragraph or several pages would keep me going through the next rough patch, which is why I gave it a three. Ultimately though, its strengths were overshadowed by its weaknesses and I finished unsure if I would have been better off giving into the temptation to quit earlier.
Rating: 4
Summary: Though a bit slow at times, this is a compelling read
Comment: Jonathan Lethem loves language and it shows. Writers who use beautiful descriptions and show a deep understanding of words can make any story more interesting. This is certainly true of THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. While the book seemed slow and too deliberate in some places, the author's skill kept me reading. Lethem's MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN might deserve the description tour de force, and GUN, WITH OCCASIONAL MUSIC showed lots of imagination.
I'm usually not interested in stories of boys growing up, but Lethem made me pay attention to this one. There are reminders here of everything from THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY by Michael Chabon to Steve Kluger's LAST DAYS OF SUMMER --- about growing up in New York in the '50s, '60s and '70s, friendships, and figuring out the codes of childhood.
We meet Dylan Ebdus, who is adored by his mother, at the age of five. Unfortunately the mother, a potentially major character, leaves the scene fairly early in the book. Alexander Ebdus, Dylan's father, is a slightly obsessed artist who for a long time never seems to know he has a son who could use his attention. Alexander ends up as a cover artist for science fiction paperbacks, which makes him more interesting to me --- in part because, while there is no Hugo for "Best New Artist," an award Alexander wins, I'm very familiar with the Hugo Awards and there is even one in my house (though it's not mine).
Dylan seems to slide through much of life. Mingus, the aware hip black kid, befriends him. This takes courage --- Dylan doesn't have anything unique to offer, and in their neighborhood in Brooklyn, black kids have the edge on things that are hip and cool. Time and again, their friendship saves Dylan from uncomfortable situations. He soon develops an odd fascination with becoming a superhero, taken over by Mingus; it's a strong subplot that gives a slightly otherworldly feel to this otherwise straightforward story.
Lethem does a very nice job of mixing the real world with his imaginary one. I often stopped to try to remember a record, an event, or a school before realizing that that one wasn't real. There are markers along the way of musical and political events. I thought Lethem's markers of funk music and graffiti tagging were a little too superficial in the scheme of black and white differences in the last fifty years. This isn't to say that Lethem's story is stereotypical. However, Dylan succeeds while Mingus is doomed; Dylan is encouraged to go to a magnet high school (even as his father seems oblivious to it all), but Mingus slides by and falls into drugs and oblivion, in no small part thanks to his father's drug habits.
When Lethem writes at his best, he takes you completely into his fictional world. The "Liner Notes" section, which brings you up-to-date, is wonderfully written, albeit too long. But you believe you heard all those R&B and soul songs that Barrett Rude Jr. sang with "The Subtle Distinctions" (I love that name).
However, I never quite got a handle on Dylan. I saw much of him through a scrim, never quite connecting. Dylan doesn't seem to develop much definition over the years. He has few passions or strong beliefs. I was compelled to read every beautifully written word, although I don't think I've ever met a character who seemed so lost about his life. The book trails off at the end, confused like its main character. I read all 450 plus pages in two days. I'm just not completely sure why.
--- Reviewed by Andi Shechter
Rating: 5
Summary: stellar -- the Great American Novel
Comment: THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE is nothing less than stellar. I can't encapsulate my joy and awe for this book in a short review. Lethem weaves gorgeous, unique prose around funny, poignant, perceptive subject matter. I couldn't get enough of this amazing epic; this is truly one of the great American novels.
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Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Motherless Brooklyn by JONATHAN LETHEM ISBN: 0375724834 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Today Show Book Club #13) by Mark Haddon ISBN: 0385512104 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 31 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Known World (Today Show Book Club # 17) by Edward P. Jones ISBN: 0060557540 Publisher: Amistad Press Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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