Jonathan Lethem

'Gun, With Occasional Music' is a science fiction noir mystery. As with all crime noir, I must compare it unfavourably with Raymond Chandler. Sorry, but there it is. That done, I do recommend this novel as an entertainingly weird twist on the lone PI investigating a mystery with the world against him. Lethem's style can be found about equidistant between Jeff Noon and The Great Chandler.

I very much enjoyed the details of the world evoked in this book. Free drugs for everyone, evolved show more animals doing most of the menial jobs, and wordless news updates. All this was presented in the deadpan, hard-boiled narration of the former-cop-current-detective-for-hire. Probably the least interesting part, though, was the mystery itself. Perhaps this was an intentionally postmodern element of the book, but I had little interest in whodunnit or why. I was more interested in the self-destructiveness of the narrator and pondering what on earth was going on with the creepy 'babyheads'.

Thus I can't wholeheartedly recommend 'Gun, With Occasional Music', although I love the world within which it is set. I think Jeff Noon does the mystery-in-bizarre-near-future thing more effectively in 'Pollen' and 'Nymphomation'. A lot of amusement can be had from reading this novel as a stylistic parody of the noir genre, though. On balance, I liked the parts better than the whole. show less

What’s a novelist supposed to do with contemporary culture? And what’s contemporary culture sup­posed to do with novelists? In The Ecstasy of Influence, Jonathan Lethem, tangling with what he calls the “white elephant” role of the writer as public intellectual, arrives at an astonishing range of answers.

A constellation of previously published pieces and new essays as provocative and idiosyncratic as any he’s written, this volume sheds light on an array of topics from sex in cinema show more to drugs, graffiti, Bob Dylan, cyberculture, 9/11, book touring, and Marlon Brando, as well as on a shelf’s worth of his literary models and contemporaries: Norman Mailer, Paula Fox, Bret Easton Ellis, James Wood, and oth­ers. And, writing about Brooklyn, his father, and his sojourn through two decades of writing, Lethem sheds an equally strong light on himself. show less

Some books are more about voice than plot. That is the case with Motherless Brooklyn. And for that reason, I feel fortunate to have listened to the audiobook version, which was phenomenally narrated by Geoffrey Cantor with an amazing variety of voices that made each character distinct--but most of all made the Tourette's Syndrome-inflicted narrator a unique, believable voice at the center of a complex web of loyalties and betrayals involving a small time Brooklyn hood, his brother, his wife, show more some doormen, an all-night Korean convenience store, a Zendo, a huge assassin, Japanese businessmen/monks--well, you get the idea. As in the other book I read by Lethem, he is never short of ideas or imagination. The noir-ish aspects are a bit too self-conscious, as if he doesn't want them to escape the notice of a reader not familiar with the genre. And the story goes on a bit too long, but thanks to the superb narration, it was a rewarding listen. show less

If you read for the writing, this is the writing you want to read.

I wasn't sure he could surpass Chronic City, but no, Lethem just keeps getting better, nearly ready for Roth's place at the table. I found Dissident Gardens quite Proustian in its layering of behaviors, revelations of character facets, sliding between times and personal connections, and laying down serious laughs when they are most needed and least expected. Outstanding, possibly the year's best. (Pre-publication copy via show more nook download, then I bought the hardcover.) show less