Probably Lethem's most complex work to date, Chronic City is a bizarre and entertaining examination of a handful of characters living in an unusual alternate Upper East Side. Former beloved child actor Chase Insteadman is famed throughout the city for being in the longest distance relationship possible, with an astronaut stranded in a wrecked space station beyond a field of Chinese space mines. The city lives in fear of a tiger said to be loose on Second Avenue. Along the way, we encounter a street-manifesto legend, a well-regarded writer of celebrity autobiography, and a dealer of the substance for which the book is titled.

Lethem really succeeds here in treading the line between realism and absurdity. At times, concepts that strike the reader as just a bit too weird to exist are accepted without question in the world of the novel--the apartment for dogs comes to mind--while elsewhere, concepts that are depicted as incomprehensible are things that we know to exist. In this juxtaposition, Lethem casts into relief the absurdity of modern culture.

I really enjoyed this book, enough so that I gave it away almost immediately upon finishing it. Lethem's touch with the semi- and un-believable has been his strongest areas in previous books, such as Fortress of Solitude and of course Motherless Brooklyn, and Chronic City is no exception.