Although I will likely never see the Edward Norton film adaptation, seeing advertisements for it pushed me to finally read the novel. Despite seeing several students read Lethem's well-known detective novel in the past, I foolishly put off reading it for the foreseeable future. Now, several months after a mini-obsession with detective fiction, I have read it. The novel reads well as a quirky and post-modern take on the genre, featuring a protagonist suffering from Tourette's syndrome. His involuntary tics drive much of the novel, adding word play, comedic relief, and, in some cases, adding an ironic feel to successes and failures of Lionel Essrog. After the death of his father-figure, Frank Minna, who took on 4 orphans of Brooklyn ("motherless Brooklyn") as his detectives, Lionel, astray, does not know who to trust and is driven by the desire to find Minna's killer.
Of course, as a postmodern take on the genre, Lionel isn't truly a detective, but someone raised anachronistically by film, hard-boiled detective novels (references to Marlowe, Sam Spade, Bogart, Mike Hammer, Sherlock, Dick Tracy, and other sleuths abound), and the streets of Brooklyn. Along the course of his investigation, the Minna Men are nearly torn asunder by Frank's murder, and Lionel seems to accept his position as a 'stooge' of sorts whose tics disarm opponents into believing he is stupid. His background as an orphan and condition combine to, in a contradictory fashion, make him the best and worst detective on the case, which may explain why Lethem's novel was so well-received. Readers cannot help but feel sympathy for Lionel. The story also works because the novel takes the reader on a suspenseful journey across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the coast of Maine while bringing "ethnic Brooklyn" to life.
Fans of pre-gentrification Brooklyn literature can see, feel, smell, and hear New York come to life as Irish, Italians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Blacks, Jews, Arabs, and Korean shopkeepers define the social space. Manhattan wealth versus the other boroughs is also evident, with a degree of Brooklyn pride inescapable in Lionel. As a kind of underdog detective, Lionel, who battles a Polish Goliath, questions the Italian mob, and confronts a Japanese corporation with elements of Zen Buddhism (because capitalism and spiritual wisdom go hand in hand), almost resembles a Phildickian protagonist who is poised to battle with social, ontological, or metaphysical questions far beyond his pay scale. One cannot help but wonder if Lethem's earlier science fiction detective story is similar...
Of course, as a postmodern take on the genre, Lionel isn't truly a detective, but someone raised anachronistically by film, hard-boiled detective novels (references to Marlowe, Sam Spade, Bogart, Mike Hammer, Sherlock, Dick Tracy, and other sleuths abound), and the streets of Brooklyn. Along the course of his investigation, the Minna Men are nearly torn asunder by Frank's murder, and Lionel seems to accept his position as a 'stooge' of sorts whose tics disarm opponents into believing he is stupid. His background as an orphan and condition combine to, in a contradictory fashion, make him the best and worst detective on the case, which may explain why Lethem's novel was so well-received. Readers cannot help but feel sympathy for Lionel. The story also works because the novel takes the reader on a suspenseful journey across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the coast of Maine while bringing "ethnic Brooklyn" to life.
Fans of pre-gentrification Brooklyn literature can see, feel, smell, and hear New York come to life as Irish, Italians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Blacks, Jews, Arabs, and Korean shopkeepers define the social space. Manhattan wealth versus the other boroughs is also evident, with a degree of Brooklyn pride inescapable in Lionel. As a kind of underdog detective, Lionel, who battles a Polish Goliath, questions the Italian mob, and confronts a Japanese corporation with elements of Zen Buddhism (because capitalism and spiritual wisdom go hand in hand), almost resembles a Phildickian protagonist who is poised to battle with social, ontological, or metaphysical questions far beyond his pay scale. One cannot help but wonder if Lethem's earlier science fiction detective story is similar...
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