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A review by kybrz
Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem
4.0
A panoply of characters come together to form a kaleidoscopic novel/memoir of growing up as a boy in Brooklyn in the 70's and 80's, with brief digressions forward and backward into other decades. Experimental in form, with a century of slapdash passages sewn together with no real care for chronology or cohesiveness. Many of the passages are one-off stories, while others tie into one narrative despite being 50 or 60 pages apart. Through this work, Lethem addresses crimes, both big and small, moral and philosophical, theorized and real. Looming over all of this is gentrification, multiple waves of it and how it shaped those who lived through it.
Many of biggest criticisms for the books are addressed ahead of time in-text with Lethem breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader. This is done the same short, staccato prose as the rest of the book and it is largely charming and lends the feel of the cool kid putting his arm around your shoulder and inviting you into the inner circle. A book likely not for everyone but largely enjoyable and a great insight into a vanished era.
Many of biggest criticisms for the books are addressed ahead of time in-text with Lethem breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader. This is done the same short, staccato prose as the rest of the book and it is largely charming and lends the feel of the cool kid putting his arm around your shoulder and inviting you into the inner circle. A book likely not for everyone but largely enjoyable and a great insight into a vanished era.