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The Fortress of Solitude

Jonathan Lethem

3.82 · Rating details · 24,195 ratings · 1,522 reviews

From the prize-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, a daring, riotous, sweeping novel that spins the tale of two friends and their adventures in late 20th-century America.

This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They live in Brooklyn and are friends and neighbours; but since Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple.

This is the ...more

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Paperback, 528 pages

Published January 6th 2005 by Faber and Faber (first published September 16th 2003)

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Feb 14, 2015 Violet wells rated it really liked it

Shelves: new-york, 21st-century, contemporary-american-fiction

Fortress of Solitude depicts a world in which there is no such thing as a responsible adult. It might be deemed a coming of age novel except its two central characters, Dylan (white) and Mingus (black), whom we meet when they are both twelve, never grow up even though by the end of the novel they are both in their thirties. Ironically the impoverished Brooklyn neighbourhood where they live does grow up, does become a responsible adult: by the time Dylan is in his thirties, it has become gentrifi Fortress of Solitude depicts a world in which there is no such thing as a responsible adult. It might be deemed a coming of age novel except its two central characters, Dylan (white) and Mingus (black), whom we meet when they are both twelve, never grow up even though by the end of the novel they are both in their thirties. Ironically the impoverished Brooklyn neighbourhood where they live does grow up, does become a responsible adult: by the time Dylan is in his thirties, it has become gentrified. Both Dylan and Mingus have been abandoned by their mothers. Both are brought up by maverick fathers on the same street in the 1970s. Dylan’s safety in the largely hostile black neighbourhood is constantly menaced though his friendship with the streetwise Mingus offers solace and even a little protection.

Whether you love or hate this novel will depend largely on whether or not you warm to Lethem’s virtuoso highly detailed prose style. Sometimes he can make you see the familiar in a new and searing light; other times he has a tendency perhaps to over paint his canvases so detail is obscured in overly mannered intricacies of imagery. On the whole I was full of admiration for Lethem’s wordsmithery. He’s among the boldest writer of sentences of living novelists.

Fortress of Solitude is a brilliant account of boyhood and especially its defining moments of triumph and humiliation which Lethem gives equal resonance to. He doesn’t go overboard with the bullying Dylan endures, the daily humiliation of being “yoked”. It’s also a deft and incredibly sensitive observation of black/white relations in 1970s New York. Mingus especially is a great character and there’s something genuinely moving and ultimately heartbreaking about the friendship Dylan and Mingus share. It’s also a brilliant depiction of urban New York in the 1970 and 80s, especially with regards to the roles played by graffiti and music.

The playful subplot of this novel is a magical ring that enables its wearer to become a superhero. Aeroman. Comics, emblematic of fantasy in general, play a major role in the formation of all the young boys. In the scenes where the ring plays a part Lethem challenges your ability to sustain disbelief to the maximum because otherwise this is a work of gritty realism and probing psychology.

Music is another theme. And especially soul music because this is a novel about soul, the haunted soul unable to quite find its native ground in the world. (Mingus’ father apparently is modelled on Marvin Gaye.)

It’s a much more ambitious novel than Motherless Brooklyn and because of its sprawling nature not, for me, as successful but still a brilliant achievement though it should also be said that the first two thirds is a great deal more engaging and moving than the last third. ...more

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Jun 20, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it did not like it

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Soon after opening CCLaP in the summer of 2007, one of the first books I had a chance to review was what at the time was Jonathan Lethem's latest, You Don't Love Me Yet; and as long-time readers remember, I found that book to be a nearly unreadable pile of horsesh-t, so bad in fact that it served as (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Soon after opening CCLaP in the summer of 2007, one of the first books I had a chance to review was what at the time was Jonathan Lethem's latest, You Don't Love Me Yet; and as long-time readers remember, I found that book to be a nearly unreadable pile of horsesh-t, so bad in fact that it served as the inaugural entry of my old "Too Awful to Finish" essay series, a series I eventually shut down again because of it being just too damn mean. And that's when I started hearing from all of Lethem's fans, telling me that I should give this grad-student panty-moistener another chance, that I had simply picked the wrong book of his to start out with. "Read The Fortress of Solitude instead!" all these academes argued. "That's the good one! You'll like that! That's the one that got all the award nominations! You'll like that one!"

So this week I finally did, yet another older title I'm getting caught up with through new "Netflix for books" service BookSwim.com, which I'm in the middle of a courtesy two-month membership with, in exchange for doing a write-up about my experience here in mid-December. And it was at this point (in fact, about 50 pages in, the point when I angrily gave up on this book) that I realized that a little theory I've had about the arts for some time now seems to be coming more and more true with every new book I read, with every year I continue being a book critic: namely, academes don't know what the f-ck they're talking about, and in the process are completely wrecking the entire literary industry we all used to know and love. I mean, how else to explain these people's baffling love for this unmitigated piece of garbage, which much like Augusten Burroughs presents a ridiculously overwritten, pop-culture-laced memoir of 1970s Gen-X childhood, featuring excruciatingly precious slang-filled magic-realism dialogue and with insanely too much gravitas assigned to such plotless meanderings as kids watching bad television and eavesdropping on their intellectual parents' insultingly banal conversations?

And then I realized -- oh, right, of course, this is an early-2000s novel by a white academe about how much white people suck (specifically, the story of the "re-whitening" of Brooklyn starting in the late '70s, after the New York borough turning into an ethnic slum following World War Two, a process called "gentrification" that has by 2009 turned nearly the entire city into a Caucasian hipster fantasyland); and man, if there's one thing that's become an undeniable truism by now, it's that back in the '90s and early '00s, academes tended to automatically fall in love with preciously overwritten screeds by self-loathing white males about the horrors of their fellow Caucasians, with the same kind of burning passion that, say, dogs love licking their own f-cking balls.

F-CK YOU, SELF-LOATHING GRAD STUDENTS! Stop ruining the entire subject of literature for the rest of us by falsely trumpeting these unreadable pieces of horsesh-t by such preciously twee suck-ass fellow self-loathing academes! J-sus F-cking Chr-st, no godd-mn wonder that the general public has stopped reading novels anymore, when you all keep running around handing out awards to execrable f-cking turds like this! Please, PLEASE, for the love of GOD, no more worshipping of overwritten plotless Gen-X pop-culture-obsessed '70s-memoir drivel! PLEASE! STOP! I'M F-CKING BEGGING YOU! STOP! STOP! STOP!

Out of 10: 0.0 ...more

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Nov 15, 2021 MJ Nicholls rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: merkins, tortured-artists, faberfaber, novels

As a rule, I veer far from anything with “coming-of-age” smells, so falling into this near 600-page monster in which Lethem autofictionalises his childhood in painstaking detail was something of an act of readerly carelessness, where this reader almost howled at the umpteenth use of ‘spaldeen’ and ‘ailanthus’, two words that needed executing very early on in the novel. Having waded through the 300-page shrine at the temple of Onanostalgia, God of Masturbatory Reminiscence, the second half of the ...more

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Nov 03, 2017 M.L. Rio rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: upmarket, books-i-own

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK WHAT YEAR IS IT

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Feb 23, 2011 Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it liked it

Shelves: reviews, reviews-3-stars, re-read, read-2007, exert-yourself, read-2021, lethem

CRITIQUE:

About the Stars

This novel and review had me perplexed.

I regard myself as a Lethem fan, basically because I loved "As She Climbed Across the Table" so much.

However, both on my first pre-GR reading (in 2007) and my recent re-reading of this novel, I was relatively disappointed. This time, I decided to adhere to my original three-star rating, although this is by no means a recommendation that other readers not read the novel.

The star rating perplexed me for two reasons. One is that I g ...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Rachel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I finally finished this thing. It's pretty good, but the first half is so much better than the second half. There is some real magic amidst the nostalgia in Lethem's story of growing up in Brooklyn in the '70s. But the whole beginning seems like it's leading up to some great climax, and that climax never comes. As the main character grows up (an exaggeration for the emotionally underdeveloped thirtysomething he is by the end), he becomes a wanky, self-absorbed snob-rock geek, which may have been ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 Mattia Ravasi rated it it was amazing

Video-review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F9Gf...

An epic tale of gentrification and crushed hopes, The Fortress of Solitude is one of the densest books I've ever read, each page packed with lives and dreams and misery. It's depressing as fuck and crazy on so many levels, but for the sheer glow of its ambitiousness, it's a pleasure to read for anyone who's passionate about American literature and culture. ...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Patrick Sprunger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Someone looking for something different

Shelves: favorites, fiction

I half expected to find that Jonathan Lethem is one of those authors that readers either love or hate, but was surprised by how mad the people who hate him are. Personally, I fall into the former camp - those who love Mr. Lethem's work. Let me explain why.

Jonathan Lethem creates the most absurd scenarios possible and then crafts ingenious narratives around them. To describe a book like Fortress of Solitude to someone not already familiar with Mr. Lethem's work requires a lot of qualification. To I half expected to find that Jonathan Lethem is one of those authors that readers either love or hate, but was surprised by how mad the people who hate him are. Personally, I fall into the former camp - those who love Mr. Lethem's work. Let me explain why.

Jonathan Lethem creates the most absurd scenarios possible and then crafts ingenious narratives around them. To describe a book like Fortress of Solitude to someone not already familiar with Mr. Lethem's work requires a lot of qualification. To do so with some of his other stories, his short stories in particular, can be almost embarrassing... There's this white kid and black kid and they come across a homeless man with a magic ring. They get the ring and use it to blaze graffiti on tall buildings in an urban turf rite. Bootsy Collins stops by to chat on occasion... It sounds hideously stupid.

But it's not. I imagine Mr. Lethem's process is this: 1. Come up with something absolutely bonkers, like magic rings (Fortress of Solitude, this book) or a former child star colluding with a mutant crustacean to take over the world (a different Lethem story, "Interview with the Crab") or exo-suits that give normal people the physical attributes of great NBA players of yesteryear ("Vanilla Dunk"). 2. Make it interesting. I imagine guiding characters like Dylan Ebdus, Mingus Rude, and Aaron X. Doily through a meaningful narrative is a tremendous challenge. I imagine a man who's up to such a challenge derives a great deal of satisfaction from it.

It's like being the world's greatest dungeon master: instant pariah status. What I find strange, though, is that Jonathan Lethem is essentially a contemporary of Neil Gaiman. And while folks love Mr. Gaiman because of his command of mythology, fascination with nightmare states, and melodious English accent, they seem to hate Jonathan Lethem. We live in a time where otherwise healthy adults devour young adult fiction. You'd think Jonathan Lethem's work would be right up the mainstream's alley. Only it would be better, because it's not for kids. ...more

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May 23, 2008 Colin Miller rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, favorite-of-this-author, book-club-picks

Storytelling has changed.

It used to be that stories unfolded slowly, sometimes even lethargically, until rising to the climactic finish. Think about the classics you like—most likely: slow start, strong finish. These days, stories begin at a rapid pace, but seem to lose momentum by the end. When I think about recent popular titles, even ones I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, this disappointment is usually present. Maybe it’s the immediacy of the modern-day culture, but it’s rare to find an ending up to ...more

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Jul 07, 2007 Clark rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

What a shit storm. This is one of the more plodding books I have engaged in my time as a reader. It ranks up there with one of the only other books I have abandoned, Updike's Rabbit, Run. Updike and Lethem also hold the distinction of being some of the worst writers of prose I have encountered. My god, I hate the way they write.

Not recommended. ...more

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Sep 28, 2013 Tripp added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1st-person, past-tense, multiple-tenses, 3rd-person, omniscient, present-tense, multiple-pov

Now that I've read this book, I share Lethem's amazement that James Wood reviewed it without mentioning the magic ring. Though the ring vanishes for long stretches of time, it is pivotal at several junctures, especially during the final scene between protagonist Dylan Ebdus, whose story of growing up white in non-white Brooklyn during the '70s this is, and his best friend, Mingus Rude, son of a famous soul singer, tagger, and, eventually, claimed by crack and consigned to the prison system. This ...more

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Sep 26, 2007 Jessica rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: alter egos

Shelves: here-is-new-york, leetle-boys

I read this a couple years ago, and the main thing I remember about it is that the first half is incredible, while much of the second half is retarded. Maybe now that I myself am older and lamer like the character gets in the book, I'd be able to relate better, and it wouldn't bother me so much.... Anyway, I liked this book a lot. The majority of it's amazing, enough so to make up for the crummy bits, which probably aren't actually that crummy, but only seemed so by comparison.

You have to get up ...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Ayelet Waldman added it

Well, this is the one. If you only read one book this year, read this one. It's devastating, brilliant, all those things the blurbs say it is. ...more

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Oct 29, 2019 Nathan "N.R." Gaddis added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-gelassen

Second Lethem. Last Lethem.

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Oct 07, 2007 Dennis rated it it was amazing

Midway through:
Fortress has been sitting on my shelf for over a year. A recent trip (just returned) to NYC, Manhattan, and a dip of the toe into Brooklyn (DUMBO and W'Burg mostly) helped elevate this book to the top of the list. Hours of plane time from the left to right coast and back again makes for some serious reading time. Indeed, Fortress has thus far lived up to it's reputation, both among GoodReaders and the Lit World in general.

Finished: The second half was in fact better then the firs ...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Darwin8u rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Boy in Brooklyn. A Künstlerroman that is a tad uneven. When Lethem has his magic prose ring on, however, the book absolutely floats. At times FoS reminds me simultaneously of that middle space between Chabon and Delillo.

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May 01, 2016 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A fictionalized story of the author's childhood in Brooklyn; at least I hope it is, because if it isn't, then Lethem is depicting as predators, what seems to be every black and Puerto Rican teenager in Brooklyn. If it is autobiographical, then Lethem had the worst luck of any white kid in the history of American urban blight, getting robbed, bullied, and beat up daily throughout his childhood by every black kid that saw him on the street. He depicts this sort of crime and intimidation as a given A fictionalized story of the author's childhood in Brooklyn; at least I hope it is, because if it isn't, then Lethem is depicting as predators, what seems to be every black and Puerto Rican teenager in Brooklyn. If it is autobiographical, then Lethem had the worst luck of any white kid in the history of American urban blight, getting robbed, bullied, and beat up daily throughout his childhood by every black kid that saw him on the street. He depicts this sort of crime and intimidation as a given, whenever he is spotted on the street. I've heard that muggings were an epidemic in New York City for a long time so I have to believe him, to a degree, and hope he isn't exaggerating to heighten the effect of the character's predicament, even though Dylan, the Lethem character's luck is extremely bad. I wish that after a certain point, it would have dawned on him to carry a steak knife or get karate lessons.

He reads lots of comics and while in his early teens, creates a flying super-hero alter ego called Aeroman, that he shares with his best friend, Mingus. Here's the story's major flaw: The ability to fly and become invisible is bestowed to anyone who possesses the magic ring, left to Dylan by a bum that his father saved from the streets. The two of them stake out areas of high crime and rescue the victims. Mingus, wearing the super-hero outfit, jumps and flies from great heights: the top of a parking garage, a bridge cable, etc. and lands on the criminals, then Dylan joins and they give them a beating. The ability to fly is presented as a fact: that someone can jump from such a height and not get hurt. Mingus even falls from one of the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and survives. Why impose this absurdity on a realistic story? It's natural that Dylan wants revenge for the bullying he endures, and a super-hero fantasy is a good(and common with children) way to depict that desire, but to tell it as a fact ruins the feeling of the story because it shifts, in a jarring and unnatural way from realism to bad action movie absurdity.

The theme recurs throughout the book and is always a disruptive reminder of what a mistake this element or device is. Towards the end of the book, Dylan gives the ring to his childhood nemesis Robert Woolfolk, so that he can escape from jail. Robert had used the ring before to fly, but Dylan purposefully forgets to tell him that it's changed to an invisibility, rather than a flying ring. Robert takes a leap towards freedom and crashes to his death. Dylan later admits to himself that he killed him for revenge for all the years of bullying. I tried to rationalize that the ring's failure could indicate that it was a fantasy all along, but then why would Robert try to fly with it and why would Dylan admit he killed him? Also, the earlier scenes where the ring is used, leave no doubt that the flying and invisibility are to be taken literally.

The story shifts from childhood to mid-thirties, after a digression into the career of Barrett Rude Junior, Mingus' father and ex-singer for the Distinctions. The digression is written as music history and I think could have been worked in as background, in a much-edited version, to the many scenes with Rude Junior in the childhood section. As a separate section, it's too much a change of tone. It talks about the fictional Rude's place among the other artists of the era and is oddly disrespectful of the real music history of the era.

The father-son relationships between Dylan and his father, and Mingus and his father and grandfather are what hold the book together and are where Lethem achieves real emotion. Also, in places towards the end when he talks about Mingus in jail and finally visits his mother's old house, where she lived for a while after abandoning him and his father. The teenage scenes with him and people his own age are too full of pop culture references that muddle things. They seem to be more intent on mentioning surface details than any real emotional interactions. Dylan seems to have experienced the whole range of early 80s pop culture: he was a graffiti artist hanging out at block parties with rap crews, then a punk in front of CBGBs. Lots of drug scenes throughout but nothing really memorable like Burroughs, Kerouac or even Edward St Aubyn; mostly bored, clinical descriptions of coke highs or dealing scenes, though there are a few vivid impressions of Barrett Rude Junior holed up in his cocaine seclusion. The scenes when they're younger, like when Dylan and Mingus first meet, and with Dylan and Arthur playing chess, are more real. Generally, the parts about early youth are the best part of this book.The last part describing Mingus's life in various prisons is also very strong, some of the best writing in the novel.

The story jumps to some lackluster scenes in his mid 30s in San Francisco, then back to his college days at Bennington[Camden], which are more interesting. There's another lackluster section about UC Berkeley and then the strong prison section. I found the book engaging and readable, even with the flaws – it has heart. It's my first by him and I'll read more.
...more

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May 19, 2007 Chloe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, new-york

A fantastic coming-of-age tale set in mid-to-late 1970s Brooklyn. Two motherless boys grow up next door to one another: Mingus Rude, son of an R&B singer, and Dylan Ebdus, son of a University Professor, grow up together on their block following first their passion for comic books (the title is drawn from the name of Superman's secret base in the Arctic) and later their love of graffiti and hip-hop. First and foremost a tale of friendship's makings and falling apart, Lethem also adds a healthy do ...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Arnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviews, comments-that-were-labelled-review

Along with The Bronx is Burning which alternates the stories of The New York Yankees and the hunt for The Son of Sam it captured New York in the late 70's perfectly. ...more

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Aug 08, 2019 Alan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: White boys and would-be superheroes

Recommended to Alan by: A mysterious stranger

Jonathan Lethem's lyrical novel The Fortress of Solitude begins with a forceful act of imagination: Isabel Vendle's arbitrary conjuration of "Boerum Hill" from within the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, despite the absence of any natural elevation, using nothing more than lines drawn on a map.

The girls on wheels were the new thing, spotlit to start the show: white people were returning to Dean Street.
—p.4

That early sentence stopped me cold, at least for a moment. Gentrification isn't ...more

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Mar 01, 2015 Stacey Falls rated it it was amazing

beautiful and dense with poetry, the fortress of solitude grapples with race, segregation, gentrification, poverty, the loss of the american dream, and disillusionment in a deep, interesting, at times playful and magical, fun and a thought-provoking way.

though at times i felt like i was immersed, up to my ears, in a testosterone world (where there are almost zero important female characters whose presence plays a strong role in the book, and the most significant female character is significant b beautiful and dense with poetry, the fortress of solitude grapples with race, segregation, gentrification, poverty, the loss of the american dream, and disillusionment in a deep, interesting, at times playful and magical, fun and a thought-provoking way.

though at times i felt like i was immersed, up to my ears, in a testosterone world (where there are almost zero important female characters whose presence plays a strong role in the book, and the most significant female character is significant because of her absence), it felt like an important and interesting world to explore.

we meet dylan, a young man, doing his best just to survive the day to day of his reality. he wants to fit in, have friends, connect with the other young boys in his neighborhood, but he is also trying to find himself in a complex world that rarely offers easy solutions. and yet this isn't a heartwarming story of an inner personal journey to find peace. on the contrary, the book ends with no catharsis, no solution. just the reality of a strongly segregated brooklyn that is being gentrified at an alarming rate. the reality of this novel is the reality that continues in 2015 post-obama america.

there is a moment of beauty at the very end, one that offers hope, but that promise of hope is tempered by the reality of too many young black men in prison, too many of them strung out on drugs, too many with a rap sheet so long the pages feel flooded with the petty offenses, too many who are metaphorically leaping off buildings, believing they will be able to fly.

possibly the most hopeful character in the book is dylan's father. though mostly absent from his son's life, we can tell he cares, but he is cut adrift by the defection of his wife. yet, he doggedly pursues his dream, his film, which, the one time we are allowed to "see it" leaves our narrator, dylan, stunned, moved, emotional. he feels for the plight of the green triangle, and wants desperately for it to fall and complete its mission.

maybe that is what we are all hoping for, the completion of the dream, the one often promised, but so out of reach. does it help to know we are all collectively holding our breath waiting for it?

...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Paige rated it liked it

I have so many mixed feelings about this book.

The entire time I was reading I couldn't stop thinking about how much I hate Jonathan Lethem. He definitely doesn't believe in humanity, and I'm not sure if he actually intimately knows any black or hispanic people. A lot of the characters were kind of caricatures of hood legends that we've all seen before on Law and Order or Crooklyn.

It's racially messy, and most of the messiness stems from its conventionality. Maybe this was on purpose, but I'm no ...more

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Jun 01, 2016 Megan Baxter rated it liked it

I finished this book and I think I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, but it was an interesting read. Still, something felt missing, and I have orbited around this review for several days, unsure of what I wanted to say or how. Then, unfortunately for Jonathan Lethem, I started reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and with one sentence, she sort of demolished this whole genre. This isn't to say that I suddenly didn't enjoy the book, but the distance I was feeling from it crystallized.

Note: ...more

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Sep 22, 2007 Nate D rated it liked it · review of another edition

Lethem's melancholic reworking of his New York childhood nostalgia, perhaps, capturing both the first-hand realism and the somewhat meandering semi-plotting of actual memories. ...more

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May 01, 2009 Farren rated it liked it

OH MY GOD PRAISE BE TO JESUS I FINALLY FINISHED IT BLAAARGH

Oh, and also: thoroughly okay. I could have done without the postmodern flourishes…the fantastical superhero elements of the narrative were sort of handled unwield-ily, as in, they weren’t fantastical enough to really persuade me that yesssssssss! This man can fucking FLY!

What else, what else? I don’t know. Lethem’s special irritating self-aware post-ironic, hipper-and-more-well-read-than-thou attitude can be read allllll over this book ...more

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Mar 06, 2009 Meredith rated it liked it

I feel like the ending really saved this book for me. I found the beginning interesting, but had a hard time working through the middle. The race relations in this story seemed very nebulous and conflicted; I may be reading too much into it, but it seemed like the author spoke through Dylan, who was continuously coping with or processing his childhood in a predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn. This was a process that never seemed to have a resolution, and I couldn't figure out if this wa ...more

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May 23, 2021 Tom Gase rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book is an epic and at times I wasn't sure where the plot was going (still might not) but I enjoyed this story. The characters are memorable, have decent dialogue and the descriptive writing of their situations they are in are beautifully well written. The story is about a boy named Dylan that grows up in Brooklyn in an area that is predominately Black. Dylan has a hard time growing up until he meets his best friend, Mingus, who is also Black. The book focuses on their friendship over mostl ...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Jonathan N rated it really liked it

The first half of this book is the best thing I've read in years. The stories of Dylan Ebdus growing up in Brooklyn, dealing with racism and graffiti and superpowers, were amazing. I couldn't put the book down. I loved it.

But then the timeline jumps forward into the 90s. Instead of a shy middle-school student, or a punk poseur teenager, Dylan is a whiny rock journalist in 1999. That's not the book I want to read. I don't care about his problems with his girlfriend or efforts to pitch a movie dea ...more

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Apr 24, 2021 Angie Dutton rated it really liked it

Only just remember reading this. It's a great book if you're a fan of music (particularly Hip Hop but there's still references in there to other stuff... love the way he describes Brian Eno music as "music for trolls"). The superhero aspects of the book are very much by-the-by and I can imagine if you're reading it for that reason then it'd probably be disappointing. ...more

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Jun 26, 2021 Mark rated it liked it

This story focuses on two friends, one white and black, growing up in Brooklyn. It begins in the 60s and spans the next several decades. It is somewhat based on Lethem's own childhood. It is a sprawling, over-stuffed novel, overshadowing some fine writing and characterizations. I am glad I read it but it wasn't as strong as I had hoped. ...more

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About Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem

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Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer.

His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel t ...more