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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
Really interesting, in that it covers about sixty years of history and dozens of major social issues, but only through their impact on this one extended family. Hard to say I enjoyed it, as the tone is overwhelmingly bleak, but I'm glad I read it, if that makes sense.
I loved this book in the beginning. Lethem has a strong voice and dark sense of humor that speaks to me, and the Jewish-leftist-slightly-crazy thing, that's pretty much my history and he does it really well. But this book spirals into its own navel way too far by about halfway through, and I was bereft of feeling for most of the characters by the time we lost Rose to the nursing home. It needs a little bit of redemption from itself- too paralyzingly depressing by the end for my taste.
Wow, this book was really really tedious and generic. Every sentence felt like it should be followed with a wink and a nudge from the author, like, "see what I did there? pretty creative, eh? yeah I'm kind of a big deal in literary circles cuz I do stuff like that." The constant NYC references also got old for me after about 10 pages ("heh, get it? because people in Gramercy Park are like totally like that, right, get it? haha"), and the strains to place Miriam in the like 1950s NYC artist/hipster scene ("lol, get it? they're gonna go to Norman Mailer's party in Brooklyn. omg so New York, right?")
I'm sorry Jonathan Lethem, I feel really mean writing this because I obviously couldn't do any better, but I just had to get all that off my chest X___X
I'm sorry Jonathan Lethem, I feel really mean writing this because I obviously couldn't do any better, but I just had to get all that off my chest X___X
Shit jammed in the pages of this one:
-jetBlue ticket to Orlando (long story)
-Joe Lhota women's health handbill (he gets a triple question mark from Planned Parenthood on all the issues)
-flyer advertising the opening of the WTC West Concourse
-Google NYC building pass dated 10.22.2013
what I'm saying is, it's mid January, BDB is mayor, and it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a work of fiction if you can let it sit half-complete on your shelves for two months without a second thought. But let me try to justify 4 stars/"really liked it" nonetheless.
I am an ardent defender of Fortress of Solitude - I thought that book was straight-up magic, possibly because it is a love song to BK and I read it roughly around the time I moved here. Let's start by pointing out that despite the NYC/coming-of-age stuff at work here this is not that book, although there were about 20 pages (298-317, specifically) where Lethem is operating at Fortress of Solitude gear.
There are undoubtedly a lot of smart things to be said about the US Communist party / Sandinista / Quakerism / Occupy! through line - and indeed, that's the tack that the jacket copy takes; "Three generations of all-American radicals." Utopian thought doesn't seem to serve anyone very well - without giving away too much of the plot arc, I think it's a fair conclusion in the Dissident Gardens universe radical political thought will get you dead, or at a minimum alienate everyone you care about.
In my view, anyways, the OWS / radicalism-repeating-itself isn't the strength of the book - it's the structure and storytelling. À la the shit-just-got-weird flying parts of Fortress of Solitude, there's a really effective chapter built entirely from a Stasi police file. The entirety of Part III was particularly strong - Lethem jumps around between characters and across time; ripping apart the world that he set up in Parts I-II.
Last thought - Dissident Gardens seemed the least believable and most cliche in the chapters written from the point of view of women. Is it possible that Lethem isn't that good at writing female characters? In the first part of that n+1 No Regrets panel I recall someone being down on him for this very reason.
-jetBlue ticket to Orlando (long story)
-Joe Lhota women's health handbill (he gets a triple question mark from Planned Parenthood on all the issues)
-flyer advertising the opening of the WTC West Concourse
-Google NYC building pass dated 10.22.2013
what I'm saying is, it's mid January, BDB is mayor, and it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a work of fiction if you can let it sit half-complete on your shelves for two months without a second thought. But let me try to justify 4 stars/"really liked it" nonetheless.
I am an ardent defender of Fortress of Solitude - I thought that book was straight-up magic, possibly because it is a love song to BK and I read it roughly around the time I moved here. Let's start by pointing out that despite the NYC/coming-of-age stuff at work here this is not that book, although there were about 20 pages (298-317, specifically) where Lethem is operating at Fortress of Solitude gear.
There are undoubtedly a lot of smart things to be said about the US Communist party / Sandinista / Quakerism / Occupy! through line - and indeed, that's the tack that the jacket copy takes; "Three generations of all-American radicals." Utopian thought doesn't seem to serve anyone very well - without giving away too much of the plot arc, I think it's a fair conclusion in the Dissident Gardens universe radical political thought will get you dead, or at a minimum alienate everyone you care about.
In my view, anyways, the OWS / radicalism-repeating-itself isn't the strength of the book - it's the structure and storytelling. À la the shit-just-got-weird flying parts of Fortress of Solitude, there's a really effective chapter built entirely from a Stasi police file. The entirety of Part III was particularly strong - Lethem jumps around between characters and across time; ripping apart the world that he set up in Parts I-II.
Last thought - Dissident Gardens seemed the least believable and most cliche in the chapters written from the point of view of women. Is it possible that Lethem isn't that good at writing female characters? In the first part of that n+1 No Regrets panel I recall someone being down on him for this very reason.
"La solita storia americana: mettevi piede nel polveroso piattume di questa derelitta utopia e all'istante cominciavi a morire per la mancanza di ossigeno mentale".
I giardini dei dissidenti è un titolo che richiama tanto altro. A un livello letterale, indica l'ambientazione in cui il romanzo è centrato: Sunnyside Gardens, quartiere del Queens costruito su influsso dell'architettura socialista tedesca, con l'idea di creare una comunità multietnica di buon vicinato, un'enclave pacifica e solidale all'interno della caotica e multiforme New York. A livello simbolico, si rifà non solo alla Vecchia Europa (Dresda, Lubecca e tutti i paesi dell'Est da cui vengono gli ebrei immigrati degli USA) ma anche al Giardino dell'Eden, quello che tutti cerchiamo di ricreare nelle nostre vite. Tutti noi infatti - in maniera imperfetta quando non proprio boriosa - cerchiamo di dar vita alle nostre utopie, di animare le credenze dentro di noi, di incarnarle nella nostra quotidianità, di adattare l'Ideale al Reale, creando purtroppo soltanto dei golem, delle creature mostruose e incontrollabili.
L'ambizione di Lethem è ricostruire, a partire da due figure titaniche come una comunista ebrea, Rose Zimmer, e sua figlia Miriam, una beatnik del Greenwich Village che vive in una comune, la storia esplosiva dei "dissidenti" statunitensi, dagli antifascisti alla controcultura fino al movimento di Occupy Wall Street.
Il romanzo, però, è tutt'altro che storico. L'intreccio si basa sullo studio dei caratteri (per dirla in un altro modo, è un classico novel character driven) e sono gli avvenimenti ad essere riflesso del carisma e della personalità dei personaggi, piuttosto che il contrario. Un romanzo affollato di personalità eccentriche, eccedenti come la scrittura di Lethem che è verboso fino al limite del logorroico ("i neri hanno il silenzio, gli ebrei la chiacchera"), sempre alla ricerca del guizzo geniale, del giro di frase brillante, purtroppo a scapito di una coesione e di una compattezza, in mancanza delle quali il lettore è quasi obbligato a distrarsi. La scrittura troppo convoluta e iper intellettualistica è però giustificata dai personaggi che sono effettivamente cerebrali, auto compiaciuti e riflessivi fino alla nausea.
Il giardino dei dissidenti, nonostante la mole e la scrittura assediante, rimane un Grande Romanzo Americano, sulla scia di Franzen e Roth, che racconta del crollo di tutte le illusioni, come gran parte della Letteratura. Ma lo fa attraverso un tessuto narrativo unico, con personaggi strabilianti e paradossali. In letteratura preferisco il troppo al troppo poco. Una portata esagerata piuttosto che un pasto striminzito. More is more.
I giardini dei dissidenti è un titolo che richiama tanto altro. A un livello letterale, indica l'ambientazione in cui il romanzo è centrato: Sunnyside Gardens, quartiere del Queens costruito su influsso dell'architettura socialista tedesca, con l'idea di creare una comunità multietnica di buon vicinato, un'enclave pacifica e solidale all'interno della caotica e multiforme New York. A livello simbolico, si rifà non solo alla Vecchia Europa (Dresda, Lubecca e tutti i paesi dell'Est da cui vengono gli ebrei immigrati degli USA) ma anche al Giardino dell'Eden, quello che tutti cerchiamo di ricreare nelle nostre vite. Tutti noi infatti - in maniera imperfetta quando non proprio boriosa - cerchiamo di dar vita alle nostre utopie, di animare le credenze dentro di noi, di incarnarle nella nostra quotidianità, di adattare l'Ideale al Reale, creando purtroppo soltanto dei golem, delle creature mostruose e incontrollabili.
L'ambizione di Lethem è ricostruire, a partire da due figure titaniche come una comunista ebrea, Rose Zimmer, e sua figlia Miriam, una beatnik del Greenwich Village che vive in una comune, la storia esplosiva dei "dissidenti" statunitensi, dagli antifascisti alla controcultura fino al movimento di Occupy Wall Street.
Il romanzo, però, è tutt'altro che storico. L'intreccio si basa sullo studio dei caratteri (per dirla in un altro modo, è un classico novel character driven) e sono gli avvenimenti ad essere riflesso del carisma e della personalità dei personaggi, piuttosto che il contrario. Un romanzo affollato di personalità eccentriche, eccedenti come la scrittura di Lethem che è verboso fino al limite del logorroico ("i neri hanno il silenzio, gli ebrei la chiacchera"), sempre alla ricerca del guizzo geniale, del giro di frase brillante, purtroppo a scapito di una coesione e di una compattezza, in mancanza delle quali il lettore è quasi obbligato a distrarsi. La scrittura troppo convoluta e iper intellettualistica è però giustificata dai personaggi che sono effettivamente cerebrali, auto compiaciuti e riflessivi fino alla nausea.
Il giardino dei dissidenti, nonostante la mole e la scrittura assediante, rimane un Grande Romanzo Americano, sulla scia di Franzen e Roth, che racconta del crollo di tutte le illusioni, come gran parte della Letteratura. Ma lo fa attraverso un tessuto narrativo unico, con personaggi strabilianti e paradossali. In letteratura preferisco il troppo al troppo poco. Una portata esagerata piuttosto che un pasto striminzito. More is more.
A pretty solid book, but I didn't like it as much as I've liked other Lethem.
At times I felt that this was brilliant, but by the end I felt that it wasn't finished. The ending was abrupt, but given the lack of traditional story arc ( i.e. some say that the book has no plot), is an abrupt ending out of place? I can only assume that this is all intentional, but it still left me wanting.
Call this a 3 and 1/2 star book.
Jonathan Lethem is a very talented writer and I've more or less enjoyed everything he's done. From absolutely brilliant (Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City), to very clever and stimulating (Motherless Brooklyn, As She Climbed Across the Table), to interesting genre experiments (Girl in Landscape, Gun With Occasional Music, Amnesia Moon), he's progressed by leaps and bounds, and covered much more diverse stylistic territory than most writers ever do.
His prose in Dissident Gardens is as good, if not better than, ever. His characters are fully fleshed, his setting vibrant. If the mid-20th century New York world of commie-pinko-jewish-lefty-hippy-bohemians is of interest to you at all, you will probably highly enjoy this. It paints a wonderful portrait of human interaction over three generations; framed by ideology, and colored in family blood.
It's episodic nature and lack of any big surprises kept it just shy of being a 4 star book for me.
Jonathan Lethem is a very talented writer and I've more or less enjoyed everything he's done. From absolutely brilliant (Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City), to very clever and stimulating (Motherless Brooklyn, As She Climbed Across the Table), to interesting genre experiments (Girl in Landscape, Gun With Occasional Music, Amnesia Moon), he's progressed by leaps and bounds, and covered much more diverse stylistic territory than most writers ever do.
His prose in Dissident Gardens is as good, if not better than, ever. His characters are fully fleshed, his setting vibrant. If the mid-20th century New York world of commie-pinko-jewish-lefty-hippy-bohemians is of interest to you at all, you will probably highly enjoy this. It paints a wonderful portrait of human interaction over three generations; framed by ideology, and colored in family blood.
It's episodic nature and lack of any big surprises kept it just shy of being a 4 star book for me.