Saturday, September 23, 2006
book report: Motherless Brooklyn
Motherless Brooklyn
by Jonathan Lethem
I've read some other books by Jonathan Lethem. And I can see from my previous book reports that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about them. Well, I finally found a Lethem book that I liked.
Lionel Essrog is a self-taught private investigator with a raging case of Tourette's Syndrome. He's also the narrator of this book, which makes for a very interesting read. I found Lethem's portrayal of Lionel's disorder to be completely believable and compelling. The title of the story comes from Lionel's childhood - he is an orphan who lived at a "school for boys" with other orphans. Lionel and a few of his classmates take up with an older guy, Frank Minna, who uses them for (really) odd jobs and eventually drags them into his world of petty crime, under the cover story of running a car service. (They answer the phones, "No cars!") Minna refers to the boys collectively as "motherless Brooklyn." When Minna is murdered, Lionel decides to investigate his death and try to take revenge on the killer. This wild goose chase takes him from the hospital to a zendo to the Maine coast, ticcing madly the entire time.
The plot of the story is not very complex, and you'll probably figure out the whodunnit before Lionel does. But that's not really the point of the book - the point is the glinting, kaleidescopic view into Lionel's freaky brain. And that is worth the read.
by Jonathan Lethem
I've read some other books by Jonathan Lethem. And I can see from my previous book reports that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about them. Well, I finally found a Lethem book that I liked.
Lionel Essrog is a self-taught private investigator with a raging case of Tourette's Syndrome. He's also the narrator of this book, which makes for a very interesting read. I found Lethem's portrayal of Lionel's disorder to be completely believable and compelling. The title of the story comes from Lionel's childhood - he is an orphan who lived at a "school for boys" with other orphans. Lionel and a few of his classmates take up with an older guy, Frank Minna, who uses them for (really) odd jobs and eventually drags them into his world of petty crime, under the cover story of running a car service. (They answer the phones, "No cars!") Minna refers to the boys collectively as "motherless Brooklyn." When Minna is murdered, Lionel decides to investigate his death and try to take revenge on the killer. This wild goose chase takes him from the hospital to a zendo to the Maine coast, ticcing madly the entire time.
The plot of the story is not very complex, and you'll probably figure out the whodunnit before Lionel does. But that's not really the point of the book - the point is the glinting, kaleidescopic view into Lionel's freaky brain. And that is worth the read.
Labels: book reports, mysteries
