You Don't Love Me Yet

by Jonathan Lethem

You Don't Love Me Yet

book data

1006 ratings, 2.66 average rating, 253 reviews (more data...)

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published

November 30th 2007 by Faber Music Ltd

binding

Paperback, 240 pages

isbn

0571235638 (isbn13: 9780571235636)

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1384)

All ratings | 5 stars (28) | 4 stars (163) | 3 stars (360) | 2 stars (290) | 1 star (136) | avg 2.66

all | this edition

Jason Pettus

Jason rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

07/16/07

Read in July, 2007

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:].)

Longtime followers of my creative projects know that in general I don't like publishing bad reviews; that for the most part I see it as a waste of both my time and yours, in that I could be spending that time instead pointing out great artists you may have never heard of. However, since one of the things this website is dedicated to is honest artistic criticism, I also feel it's important to acknowledge boo...more

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Jill

Jill rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

09/09/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: no one.

I loved Motherless Brooklyn and Lethem's book of essays, The Disappointment Artist. You Don't Love Me, Yet, however, has almost ruined my faith in contemporary fiction. Because I don't want to spend more time writing about this book than I have to, I will list some of the things about it that annoyed me:

1) The Characters' Names:
Bedwin
Falmouth Strand
Vogelsong
FANCHER AUTUMNBREAST (I actually had to stop reading for a few days after that one)

2) The contrived sex that made me never ...more

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jeremy

jeremy rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

11/23/07

Read in January, 2007

no, i most certainly do not, and if you keep writing like this, i never will. reads like an overreaching first attempt at fiction. the only thing worse than whiny hipsters is an entire novel about them. the only thing worse than that, is a poorly written one.

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1 comment

Trin

Trin rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

11/18/08

bookshelves: american-lit, fiction, music

Read in October, 2008

Oh my god. I’m actually shocked that a book by a respected author like Lethem could be this bad. Because it is so bad. It’s full of whiny, painfully hipstery characters with names like Fancher Autumnbreast tooling around a fake L.A. that makes no geographical sense (even less than the real L.A., I mean) and having lots of deeply unpleasant-sounding sex that made me lock my legs at the knee as I read. Fine. That’s just bad. But what launches this book into the stratosphere of ...more

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4 comments

Ryan

Ryan rated it:

(review of isbn 140007682X)

04/16/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Ryan by: myself
recommends it for: people who like bad period pieces.

I would hate if my boss always compared my successes to my failures. Luckily my boss doesn't. If he did, I would quit. What he usually says when I make a mistake is 'Ryan, you screwed up, don't do it again'. Unfortunately most of Jonathan Lethem's readers don't give him that much respect. As an author of tremendous talent, he constantly gets compared to his greatest works. A comparison that is a waste to both the author and to any critical reader.

That said, at its best YOU DON'T LOVE M...more

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hanna

hanna rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

02/20/08

Wow, was this dreadful, irredeemably so. Where to begin? The overall feeling that the author had spent a grand total of a weekend in Los Angeles before writing this book, and threw in random details from looking at a GoogleMap? Honestly, even people that have lived in LA only briefly and hate it at least have more specific, well-founded, and intense reasons to justify their disgust. The derision that got blanketed in its own apathy is so textbook poke holes in LA because of someone symbolic ...more

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Gabriel

Gabriel rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

10/29/08

Read in October, 2008

recommends it for: no.

Man, I heard this was not great, but I didn't really expect it to suck THAT much. I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt since he's written some things I loved, especially the . Oh well. At least it was short.

Overwrought prose, boring and/or unlikeable characters, not to mention the ever-dangerous task of writing about music and not sounding like a total douche.

Upon reading some of the other reviews I felt I should add that I don't have any problem reading about hipsters or s...more

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Aimee

Aimee rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

04/06/08

bookshelves: wasteoftime

Read in April, 2008

Although several fellow Goodreaders gave this "novel" low marks, I thought I'd give it a go, as the basic storyline sounded amusing. What a disappointment, especially after Motherless Brooklyn. The characters are annoying, self-absorbed, and one-dimensional. The story is equally uninspiring--Ennui in a half-hearted, Tragically Hip band. In the book, the band struggles to find a name, which aptly fits the aimlessness of the book and its protagonist. An appropriate name would have bee

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Sarah

Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 057123562X)

10/20/08

bookshelves: los-angeles

Read in October, 2008

recommends it for: stacy and john, because it mentions siete mares

this was a reasonably enjoyable read until the truly stupid ending. it gets an extra star for making me so f-ing homesick for los angeles that i got drunk within an hour of waking up this morning.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

Jonathan

Jonathan rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

12/02/08

Read in December, 2008

recommends it for: no one

I have a hard time taking a rock band seriously, so trying to take a fictional band seriously is a stretch I don't care to make. I would rather sit through a play-by-play description of Harry Potter's quidditch match than a song-by-song description of a fake band's show. I did enjoy the fiasco of their radio broadcast experience. I see movie potential with P.S. Hoffman as Carl. Maybe David Cross as armpit-smelling Jules.
Also, the lead (a young woman) character's sexual behavior seems like the ...more

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George

George rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

10/15/08

Read in October, 2008

A group of hip indie musicians navigate the LA arts scene and the problems that come with being in an under-the-radar band that's not quite ready to go public. I'm sure there's an interesting book here -- the whole scene is just ripe for some good satire (although some would argue that it's far too easy a target -- but this isn't it. What really drags the book down is its characters. There is the expected combination of artistic pretension and self-absorbed obliviousness (part of what makes this...more

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Jenni

Jenni rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

08/05/08

Read in August, 2008

I saw this book and immediately knew I'd hate it as something from the pretentious "Rent" vein. But it was on my required reading list, and school begins soon, so I picked it up and read it all in a sitting, and am now ready to digest it.

If I read it all in one sitting, it couldn't have been that bad—right? Wrong. I just wanted to get it over with. The basic premise is this: a struggling band of slightly (but no more than that) misfit characters gets their big break via an inspir...more I saw this book and immediately knew I'd hate it as something from the pretentious "Rent" vein. But it was on my required reading list, and school begins soon, so I picked it up and read it all in a sitting, and am now ready to digest it.

If I read it all in one sitting, it couldn't have been that bad—right? Wrong. I just wanted to get it over with. The basic premise is this: a struggling band of slightly (but no more than that) misfit characters gets their big break via an inspirational (somewhat) old man named Carl. No joke. Then, predictably, Carl wants a spot in the band and winds up breaking them up. The band's songs are pretty bad, even after they get their Carlspiration(TM). Think the "Joe lies/when he cries" song from "Say Anything" and you'll arrive close to what I mean by that. That the story's set in holier-than-thou Los Angeles and has a number of artist-types (I add the –types because I couldn't possibly call them artists) whose take on art is to make every situation, no matter how ordinary, into something it's not only adds to the sort of snooty atmosphere the author builds throughout. (Who talks the way these people do? Stoners? Apparently so.) Lucinda, the unworthy and decidedly uninteresting heroine of the story, meets her inspiring Carl whilst working as a receptionist taking complaints in one of these orchestrated situations.

The band's most "inspired" song is called "Monster Eyes." Yeah. I laughed too. A lot. Then I just thought it sad. The title refers to what happens when the one flaw you see in a person mushrooms so that it becomes *everything* you see in them. The Monster Eyes amplify the flaw until they devour everything you once saw that was good about someone. Obviously, the author has never heard that the absence of a flaw in beauty is itself a flaw. Or, perhaps, he's heard of it but doesn't believe it. Whatever. There was an ideological disconnect between the story and I there—one of many, as it turns out.

It's often hard to tell when the author's trying to be funny or trying to be serious. Some people have attributed this to his "witty irony" (from the front matter), but none of it seemed very witty or ironic to me, just kind of baseless and disorganized. It didn't help that I really couldn't make myself care a rat's ass about any of the main characters. Much as I kept thinking, "What makes you think you don't have to pay rent?" all throughout "Rent," I kept thinking, "What about you as people makes you so special?" throughout this novel. And so I got caught in a vortex-like loop from which thought and time cannot escape. The insights to be gained from this book are banal; like "Girl, Interrupted," the novel pretends at profundity but only plumbs new levels of, well, pretension. Shove your book up your arse, Mr. Lethem. That is, presumably, where it came from.

All right. . .I'll admit that last bit was a little harsh. But I'm still not taking it back.

"You can't be deep without a surface." Yeah? And you can't be deep if you don't sink beneath that surface, either, and find something worthwhile there. "He touched the lowest depths to attain the highest heights," as Dante wrote—my Latin's a bit shaky, so pray forgive the translation if it's wrong. There's no depth here. Pretending to be profound is not deep.

As to the writing style: when I began the book, it interested me immensely. Certain register shifts are common, from the lofty to the bathetic to the seedy and filthy: from Shakespeare to Danielle Steele, an you will. And, as I said, it interested me for a while. But then the shifts just became jarring and erratic: decidedly very off-putting. Mr. Lethem also is fond of a sort of nitty-gritty realism in his novel, which leads to rather pointless descriptions of what Lucinda happens to be wearing at the moment and even more pointless descriptions of oral sex. Now, the book gods know I'm no prude—I'm a staunch supporter of "In the Cut," after all—but the descriptions of here were to me a little bland, mindless, and out of place. There is no reason for them: no deep psychological need is filled by the sexual relationships, nor do they drive the plot forward in any necessary sense. (Am I the only woman left in America who thinks falling in love and having sex in all of five minutes is wrong?)

I'm chalking this book up to a culture shock experience, though not in the good way of trying new things, but in the bad way of understanding why I do not try new things more often. Is it interesting? Sure, if you like this sort of thing. Is it brilliant? Not really. It's a decent example of modern fiction, I suppose. Just because I don't care for it doesn't mean other people won't. *sigh*

"Rent" and all your ilk, stay far away from me. You are making me nauseous.
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3 comments

Lundy

Lundy rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

07/13/08

Billed as a romantic comedy – You Don’t Love Me Yet – takes place within the isolated inner circle of a group of LA hipsters. Lucinda is working in a friend’s art exhibit – a complaint center. The artist, Falmouth, posts signs seeking peole to call and complain. Lucinda soon becomes entranced by a man who regularly calls. Lucinda shares the "complainer's" insights with her band’s songwriter.

After hearing them play at an “aparty” – they were originally supposed to ...more

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Christen

Christen rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

06/22/08

I'd give this two and a half stars if Goodreads would let me.

I chose this in a far more hurried manner than usual. I was in the airport, knew I was likely to finish my book in flight, and knew I'd need something to get me through the rest of the trip. I dashed into the mini-Powell's at the airport, ran my eyes over the Literary Fiction/Classics section, saw Lethem's name, though, "Hey, I've heard good things and been meaning to check him out," and arbitrarily picked this from among...more I'd give this two and a half stars if Goodreads would let me.

I chose this in a far more hurried manner than usual. I was in the airport, knew I was likely to finish my book in flight, and knew I'd need something to get me through the rest of the trip. I dashed into the mini-Powell's at the airport, ran my eyes over the Literary Fiction/Classics section, saw Lethem's name, though, "Hey, I've heard good things and been meaning to check him out," and arbitrarily picked this from among the titles offered.

Turns out people who love Lethem's other work found this a great disappointment, so I'm probably not insane. Thing is, the prose was beautiful, and Lethem's descriptions of Los Angeles (the city I happened to be traveling to) were beautiful and spot-on. All the more disappointing that such a perceptive writer should take us on such an uninteresting journey.

You know how Delillo's characters are kind of fascinating and sophisticated but also kinda flat and sometimes obnoxious and his dialogue is sometimes impossibly clipped and abstract? You know how that kind of annoys you but then the ideas just completely deliver and at the end of the day it's completely OK with you that he's far more talented as an essayist and aphorist than as a fiction writer? Except when he really doesn't deliver? Well, Lethem opens this novel with two impossibly beautiful Angelinos meeting at a gallery to break up. Except he doesn't say that and they don't say that -- the dialogue (which I'd quote if I hadn't already gotten rid of the book) is implausibly clipped and abstract. Then there's band practice, and nobody can tell if the band in question is completely shitty or really onto something. Then there's one character's absurd job taking calls at the Complaint Line, an art installation -- and she's inexplicably fascinated by a particular caller's self-possessed complaints that she pursues a relationship with him in real life. It turns out he's an honest to God aphorist -- and while a few of his lines are compelling, most of them are just annoying.

Then there's a subplot involving one character's creepy decision to abduct a kangaroo from the zoo where he works/has been fired. That made me hopeful that this whole stupid millieu would turn into some kind of madcap mystery, but no, that subplot resolves itself with disappointing tidiness. As does, for that matter, the relationship with the complainer, and pretty much everything having to do with the band.

None of this matters much, because I had pretty much nothing invested in the characters or their outcomes. And I really tried. Before their ages were revealed to me, I imagined the characters were in their early 20s and maybe-educated, maybe-not, which would explain why they do such stupid things and seem so desperate to impress. Turns out, no, they're all supposed to be on the precipice of 30, and they are all educated. Now, I'm 27, and I can scarce imagine anyone I know behaving as stupidly as the characters in this book. Maybe I give my friends too much credit, or maybe I choose them well enough to avoid this -- but seriously, any reasonably intelligent, experienced 29-year-old woman should have seen right through the complainer.

Spoiler alert -- the unnamed band disappears to the void they spend all but 20 pages inhabiting, which makes perfect sense, because apart from a few passages describing the chemistry at their first show, the only thing you know about the band's sound is their lyrics (appropriated from the complainer's aphorisms), which are so bad you assume the music has to be fantastic in order to carry them. This is, in fact, suggested at one point in the book, and it's the only explanation that makes any sense to me.

Since the two major storylines involve theft (the kangaroo and the complainer's words), I assume Lethem's Big Ideas -- you know, the ones that should make it worth our while to tolerate the stupidity and shallowness of the characters -- have something to do with, like, the transmutability of intellectual property. This is an issue he's written about quite eloquently elsewhere. It's handled with embarrassing clumsiness here. I'll give the man another shot, but I can't recommend this particular work to anyone.

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Anne

Anne rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

06/09/08

Read in June, 2008

As with most up and coming brilliant writers these days, Lethem is just one that I can't quite get into. His books are filled with real people and real angst, but I just can't seem to relate. This one focuses on a band in L.A., waiting for their big break. One of the members, Lucinda, works for something called a complaint line, a performance art installation of sorts where people can call up and just have someone listen to them complain. Her maybe-ex boyfriend works at the zoo but is depressed ...more

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Jessica

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

02/04/08

bookshelves: readit

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008

Well, quite frankly I was disappointed. This book felt like something you could read in any creative writing class at any mid-level university in any state. Some of it I guess was interesting, and I did finish the book mostly because I wanted to see what would happen in the end. I've heard lots of great things about Lethem, so maybe I'll try something else of his, but I don't think I'll be terribly motivated to pick up another novel of his. I can barely remember any of the characters names now.....more

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Shane

Shane rated it:

(review of isbn 0739314947)

10/30/07

bookshelves: readin2007

Read in October, 2007

This is probably my 5th or 6th Lethem but my least favorite. It's the first one without fantastic elements also so I'm sure that's part of it.

Lethem used to represent a kind of unknown quantity for me. It was the genius of experimentation that sometimes didn't work but when it did it REALLY did. In this novel it seems that he has turned to a more limited but polished style. There are some ridiculous scenes in the book but nothing absolutely absurd.

You can tell that he really loves to ...more

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Geeta

Geeta rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

10/15/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: people nostalgic for their twenties

I listened to this on CD in the car, and this may account for my less than favorable opinion. Or perhaps I'm lukewarm about the book because so much of it was familiar and reminded me of a time in my life that I'd rather forget. In which case, it succeeds on some level.

I found the point of view irritating, in terms of the way it shifted distance, and the language sometimes fell flat. I don't like talky books, but for driving, all the dialogue was fine. The main character, Lucinda, seemed...more

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Joel

Joel rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

10/05/07

Read in October, 2007

Lethem's "You Don't Love Me Yet" is written very much in the style of "The Fortress of Solitude" which, while good, can become tiring very quickly.

The story is acceptable, in that it is unusual characters that the audience can recognize and perhaps even relate to, and that there are events in these characters lives that cause them to examine themselves and, maybe, to change. What draws the story down, however, is the sudden changes from 3rd person omniscient to 2nd perso...more

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Matt

Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 038551218X)

09/19/07

Read in April, 2007

Guys, this book was pretty sucky. I read it because my friend Alan in Philly wrote to me that it was about characters named Matthew and Lucinda and that they played in a band in LA. So thinking (secretly hoping?) that this dude was spying on my life, I went and got a copy of it, and fortunately (or not) there were no further coincidences. Lucinda and I were going to go over to Skylight Books to meet Lethem at a signing, but then the bass player was late to rehearsal so we didn't have time.

Wh...more

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