Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Motherless Brooklyn
Book Review: A Modern Day Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Jonathan Lethem has outdone himself with this work. While at points going overboard on the description and the picture-painting, one cannot help but play out their own movie-type setting in Brooklyn and in Lionel's head. This was one book that I could hardly put down and when I did put it down, it wasn't more than an hour that I was back to it, pulled in, enthralled by this elaborate Murder She Wrote vs. Wiseguy vs. Medical Journal....Lionel's ecstaticism in his own mind and how he dealt with the events served as a story within a story within a story. The running commentary is enough for even the novice reader to keep up with the estranged plot. This book is entertaining to begin with; Lethem makes sure the reader is paying attention with his gross use of "Eatme"-isms. Then it becomes captivating as the reader tries to understand a very misunderstood man and sympathize with his affliction yet admire his will and sense of mind to piece this crooked puzzle together. Finally, it comes together like a symphony, everything in unison, most everything making sense and the reader being left with a strong sense of satisfaction after flipping to the last page. But the book's strong subtext to not take anything for face value can deliver a powerful message to everyone. Thank You Mr. Lethem for making this such a readable piece of work that I can assure you will be read over and over.Book Review: A Narrator to Remember
Summary: 4 Stars
Courtesy 1980s LA Law, that glossy, technicolor descendent of Miami Vice and Dynasty, full of soap opera and courtroom intrigue, a response, perhaps, to the gritty reality of another show, another 80s icon, Hill Street Blues.
I don't remember the character, although I think he may have been a lawyer. I just remember him screaming, loudly, randomly, and bewilderingly.
I was just a teenager, an adolescent who hadn't yet seen enough of life to understand the infinite diversities within it. I was self-centered and assured as an insecure teenager could possibly be. So I saw that lawyer character on LA Law, that character with Tourette's syndrome, and decided he was one of the most annoying TV characters I'd ever come across.
I despised him. It may have been because I'm a naturally tense, jumpy individual. The percussive expletives, the random, disturbing tics those afflicted with the syndrome often exhibit, just a little too grating on my naturally raw nerves. Freaks. That's what I thought. Maybe still do.
Jonathan Lethem's narrator does, too. Even though he also happens to be one of them.
So here I am, a fan of Lethem, having read and loved with all my heart his "The Fortress of Solitude", that when I saw this earlier novel, "Motherless Brooklyn", well I had to pick it up.
Only to find the first person narrator madly afflicted with Tourette's. But this was Lethem, and "Fortress" was my favorite book of 2010.
Through and through a noirish detective novel (I've read far darker), with a narrator who you certainly *can't* just say only *happens* to be afflicted with Tourette's (since it's the central conflict of many conflicts within the novel, wheels within wheels, you might say), I fully expected to be a profoundly put off reader. I never expected to finish the book, let alone like it.
But darn it, not only did I come to care for the narrator profoundly, but I managed to make peace with his distractions: expletives (almost never word-wise obscene) and gestures and shoulder tapping and collar straightening and finger tapping and neck craning and obsessive counting (and I could go on and on). Yep, I got used to them. Read past them, really, set out as they were in italics. And I think that's how Lethem wanted me to react.
By the end of the novel, Lionel was another guy with Tourette's, a reluctant hero type, trying to solve mysteries within mysteries.
All in all, Lethem crafts a crackling good story filled with interesting, engaging characters. I never grew bored. The story has its share of twists. And it's so obvious, after a couple books now, just how justifiably in love Lethem is with NYC. It shows through his writing. His writing makes its mark.
How he could make a truly sympathetic character, when symptoms of Tourette's interrupt the narrative on just about every single page is, simply, quite a trick. Lethem has so much talent.
"Motherless Brooklyn" is strongly recommended.
Book Review: A New York Nothing
Summary: 4 Stars
A small life in a big place doesn't mean it isn't a fascinating life. Lethem knows his tics and puts them in your head. Excellent read.Book Review: A Novel That Really Deserves a Sequel
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read some of Lethem's other works and found them to be unsatisfying, but Motherless Brooklyn is a one-of-a-kind novel, with a main character that turned out to be even more sympathetic that I expected. The whodunit detective story that is the background of this work is only OK, but Lethem's writing and his protagonist Lionel Essrog leave a major impression. Touching without being sentimental, this is the story of a physically flawed yet three-dimensional human being, and I only wish that the author would write a sequel so I could be assured that Lionel gets the happy ending he deserves. An unusual literary treat that had a remarkable effect on this reader!Book Review: A Teriffic Story: The Mob, Tourettes, Zen....
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved reading every word of Jonathan Letham's Motherless Brooklyn. First, I must confess that I'm biased because a good portion of the story takes place in my neighborhood, however, with that said, Brooklyn is merely the backdrop for this mystery that unfolds, twists and turns with every page.The story is seen through the eyes of Lionel Essrog, an orphan with tourettes, who works for a low level Brooklyn Mobster. Lionel, gets caught up in the murder of his boss and takes it upon himself to solve the crime...which is the work of some old time Brooklyn mobsters.
Throughout the novel, Letham is brilliant at creating a world where the reader understands Lionel's tourettes and is able to quickly understand his actions yet sympathize as a victim. Letham also does a teriffic job of developing all of the supportint characters as well. All of which, are uniquely pathetic.
This novel, is one of the liveliest reads I've had in some time and is strongly recommended if you're looking for a great whodunnit, that is also a great study in character.