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Jonathan Lethem

    February 19, 1964

    Jonathan Lethem is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer known for his innovative approach to genre literature. His works often weave together elements of science fiction and detective fiction, creating unique and provocative narratives. Lethem distinguishes himself through a deep exploration of themes of identity, alienation, and the nature of reality, frequently employing unexpected twists and brilliant prose. His ability to blend high and low culture marks him as a significant voice in contemporary American letters.

    Jonathan Lethem
    More Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers
    Charles Long
    The Collapsing Frontier
    Motherless Brooklyn; Fortress of Solitude
    Shake It Up
    Gregory Crewdson
    • 2024
    • 2024

      Having stormed mainstream literature from the outskirts, Lethem has won a readership both wide and deep, all of whom appreciate his literary excellence, his mordant but compassionate humor, and the cultish attentiveness of his SF origins. He has earned the right to tread anywhere, and his many admirers are ready to follow. This collection compiles his intensely personal takes on the most interesting and deplorable topics in post-postmodern America. From original new fiction to incites on popular culture, cult and canonical authors, and problem performers. The "Furry-Girl School of American Fiction" is a personal true adventure, as Lethem tries (with the help of a seeming expert) to elbow his way into literary respectability. "The Narrowing Valley" is a brand-new fictional journey into an ominous new unmapped realm. In an intimate encounter with a literary legend, Calvino's Italy and Lethem's Brooklyn meet cute. Stanislaw Lem's Poland and Snowden's Exile both explore courage, art, and the search for truth, with wildly different results. A bibliography is also provided as well as our usual Outspoken Interview.

      The Collapsing Frontier
    • 2023

      Brooklyn Crime Novel

      • 384 pages
      • 14 hours of reading
      3.5(850)Add rating

      From the bestselling and award-winning author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn comes a sweeping and prismatic story of community, crime, and gentrification, tracing over fifty years of life in one Brooklyn neighbourhood[Bokinfo].

      Brooklyn Crime Novel
    • 2020

      Before the Arrest, Sandy Duplessis had a reasonably good life as a screenwriter in L.A. An old college friend and writing partner, the charismatic and malicious Peter Todbaum, had become one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. That didn't hurt. Now, post-Arrest, nothing is what it was. Sandy, who calls himself Journeyman, has landed in rural Maine. There he assists the butcher and delivers the food grown by his sister, Maddy, at her organic farm. But then Todbaum shows up in an extraordinary vehicle: a retrofitted tunnel-digger powered by a nuclear reactor. Todbaum has spent the Arrest smashing his way across a fragmented and phantasmagorical United States, trailing enmities all the way. Plopping back into the siblings' life with his usual odious panache, his motives are entirely unclear. Can it be that Todbaum wants to produce one more extravaganza? Whatever he's up to, it may fall to Journeyman to stop him

      The Arrest
    • 2019

      The Best American Mystery Stories 2019

      • 336 pages
      • 12 hours of reading
      3.4(210)Add rating

      For Jonathan Lethem, "crime stories are deep species gossip." He writes in his introduction that "they're fundamentally stories of power, of its exercise, both spontaneous and conspiratorial; stories of impulse and desire, and of the turning of tables." The Best American Mystery Stories 2019 has its full share of salacious intrigue, guilt, and retribution. The twists and bad decisions pile up when a thief picks the wrong target or a simple scavenger hunt takes a terrible turn. What happens when you befriend a death row inmate, or just how does writing Internet clickbait became a decidedly dangerous occupation? "How can we not hang on their outcomes?" asks Lethem. "Are we innocent ourselves, or complicit?" Read on to find out.

      The Best American Mystery Stories 2019
    • 2019

      Motherless Brooklyn (Movie Tie-In Edition)

      • 336 pages
      • 12 hours of reading
      3.5(81)Add rating

      After a mobster is fatally stabbed, the men who worked for him splinter, leaving Lionel Essrog to investigate who killed his boss and why -- adapted from cover description

      Motherless Brooklyn (Movie Tie-In Edition)
    • 2018
    • 2018

      From the award-winning author of  Motherless Brooklyn  and  The Ecstasy of Influence  comes a new collection of essays that celebrates a life spent in booksMore Alive and Less Lonely collects over a decade of Jonathan Lethem’s finest writing on writing, with new and previously unpublished material, impassioned appreciations of forgotten writers and overlooked books, razor-sharp critical essays, and personal accounts of his most extraordinary literary encounters and discoveries.  Only Lethem, with his love of cult favorites and the canon alike, can write with equal insight into classic writers like Charles Dickens and Herman Melville, modern masters like Lorrie Moore and Thomas Pynchon, graphic novelist Chester Brown, and science fiction outlier Philip K. Dick.                                                                                                                Sharing his infectious love for books of all kinds, More Alive and Less Lonely is a bracing voyage of literary discovery and an essential addition to every booklover’s shelf.

      More Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers
    • 2017

      Shake It Up

      • 601 pages
      • 22 hours of reading

      Excellent. . . . A feast of rock writing, freewheelin', funny, and deep. -Bruce Handy, New York Times Book Review A vivid cross-section of a half century's worth of American music writing. . . . Lethem and Dettmar have made their selections both rightly and righteously. -Jack Hamilton, NewYorker.com There are so many hits that this smart anthology mostly feels like a dream jukebox. -Dwight Garner, New York Times Will remind you of just about everything you love about music. -PopMatters.com Pop writing, at its best, doesn't know the difference between desire and theory, which is precisely the reason for its power and its persistence. Lethem and Dettmar's expansive anthology renders this wild, polychrome tradition, and the state of play today, with gusto. Ben Ratliff, author of Every Song Ever

      Shake It Up
    • 2016

      **A New York Times top 100 Notable Book of the Year** Alexander Bruno is a man with expensive problems. Sporting a tuxedo and trotting the globe, he has spent his adult life as a professional gambler. His particular line of work- backgammon, at which he extracts large sums of money from men who think they can challenge his peerless acumen. In Singapore, his luck turned. Maybe it had something to do with the Blot - a black spot which has emerged to distort Bruno's vision. It's not showing any signs of going away. As Bruno extends his losing streak in Berlin, it becomes clinically clear that the Blot is the symptom of something terrible. There's a surgeon who can help, but surgery is going to involve a lot of money, and worse- returning home to the garish, hash-smoke streets of Berkeley, California. Here, the unseemly Keith Stolarsky - a childhood friend in possession of an empire of themed burger bars and thrift stores - is king. And he's willing to help Bruno out. But there was always going to be a price.

      The Blot