A review by leasttorque
The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem

3.0

Is it significant that Lethem can be scrambled to make The Lem? The bizarrely fantastical Blue Streak and the whimsically satirical tone certainly brought Lem to my mind, though I’ve read little of him and that long ago. So I stumbled along thinking of kicking this book to the curb but it had enough precious bits of writing to keep me going in spite of my perpetual annoyance with the protagonist being so, well, journeyman-like. I’m sure I’ve missed the deeper meaning of this choice. However, in the end I was delighted with the the final blockbuster act. An amazing meta-prank on the apocalyptic-dystopian genre. Not bad for my first Lethem.