Chronic City: A Novel
by Jonathan Lethem
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jonathan LethemEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-13
ISBN: 0385518633
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of Chronic City: A Novel
Book Review: " a Big Idea"
Summary: 5 Stars
Back around 1912, Augustus John, the painter, commented on the avant-garde painters in Paris. Much was happening in Paris at the turn of the century. He was English and took a somewhat detached view of everyone and everything. But he did make one important observation - it was about Henri Matisse, the French painter, who had, by 1912, gone from being a painter, copying old masters at the Louvre, to impressionism, then fauvism, and finally cubism. John very wryly said of Matisse, "He has a big idea, but he cannot yet express it." Even almost 100 years later, some people think that the jury is still out on Matisse's work. Others, of course, consider him the most important painter of the 20th century.
All of which makes me think of Lethem's new book, "Chronic City" and how close Lethem is to Matisse in how he is viewed by his literary public, and in how similar he is in having a "big idea." And, like John's comment on Matisse, I think that his work hasn't yet achieved what he is finally after, though I am neither a literary critic nor a writer. But strangely enough, after finishing "Chronic City", I happened to watch "Night at the Museum" on DVD, starring Ben Stiller. When the movie was over, having enjoyed and accepted all the fantastic, weird goings on, I thought, "Now I understand Lethem's challenge but can he achieve it?" The written image and the visual image are miles apart, mostly. But what a great idea it would be if the written image were cleverly structured so as to be as totally accepted as are the images in movies, without falling into the fantasy land of sci-fi's, comics or gothics, but were, nevertheless, strangely exciting with plot twists worthy of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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