Rating: 
Summary: Lethem's Quirky Gumshoe Tale is an American Classic
Review: This is the quintessential American detective novel and, therefore, reveals itself like an Odyssey epic. A pageant of life passes before the sleuth and the audience in dubious sounds, sights, and motives. Anyone who loved the oddball humor and pathos of the NBC drama "Homicide" will definitely feel at home in this tale of Lionel Essrog, a detective with Tourette's syndrome on the trail of a murderer.There's a gimmicky Raymond Chandler language at play in the novel. Detectives are referred to as the Minna Men, "tugging the boat" is pushing your luck, and "telling your story walking" is the preferred method of succinctly putting words to work.Dostoevsky's Idiot also resonates throughout the novel. The ridiculed simpleton is drawn into a world that deems him a lightweight . Nevertheless, he gains access and becomes the figure who knows the score better than its original players.Lethem's writing is crazy-grin-and-laugh-out-loud funny, unsentimentally poignant, and hugely rewarding. He gets maximum effect out of his central character, and there's nothing lost in the translation of Tourette's syndrome to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: A fine parody ("ALPINE CHARITY, EATMEBAILEY...")
Review: Excuse the above. Couldn't hold it in any longer..."Have you ever felt, in the course of reading a detective novel, a guilty thrill of relief at having a character murdered before he can step onto the page and burden you with his actual existence?" Lionel Essrog, the narrator, asks about a third of the way through this book. Up to that point, it was reasonable to assume that Lethem would play his detective story straight. But this question ups the ante a touch. It was at this point that I worried Lethem would take the path worn by Paul Auster (see his brilliant 'New York Trilogy') where the elements of the hard-boiled detective novel would be used purely for the sake of post-modernism. Auster's detectives never solve their crimes, and frankly, it doesn't matter. His ideas are bountiful enough for the reader to hold on to. Lethem, on the other hand, needs his narrative resolution. His ideas aren't in Auster's league. Sure, he sprinkles some Zen Buddhism over here, and questions of identity over there, and his main character has a disease that borders on the stream of consciousness style that contemporary literati find so intriguing (I don't). But they just don't have the same weight. Thankfully -- and I worry here that I'm giving away too much of the ending -- he follows the genre's conventions just enough to keep the reader happy. There's a great line near the middle of the book, when a patron in a restaurant, complaining of Lionel's use of a cell phone in a public place, says: "people talking to themselves in a public place like they got some kind of illness!" Lionel, narrator and protagonist, is a wonderful creation. His Tourette's Syndrome, which at first came off as a hackneyed device, actually serves to elevate the entire book. It was wonderful to hear the series of Tourettic thoughts going through his head, and what the final culmination of those thoughts were when they would eventually escape through his mouth. I often thought that if the people he was speaking too were any brighter, then Lionel's cover would be consistently blown because you always knew what his hidden thoughts were. Luckily, the "Minna Men" he hung with were as low rent as the detective agency they worked for. Lethem does a good job creating his world, his seedy little section of Brooklyn (and its outskirts, and even a sidetrip to Maine) for his characters to roam around in. The details seem just right, if a little self-conscious at times (a minor character is named "Welcome", a byproduct of her hippie parents but really of no use to the story). He takes the classic detective genre, and adds elements from the '90's to make it more relevant (like a "soundtrack" peppered with Funkadelic, Boyz II Men, and most tellingly, Prince). And you've got to admire an author who has the confidence to begin a chapter: "There once was a girl from Nantucket. No, really, that's where she was from."
Rating: 
Summary: Frightfully accurate!
Review: Jonathan Lethem is a true original. His latest, "Motherless Brooklyn" manages to spin a tale of orphan misfits, detectives, gangsters and a main character that suffers from Tourette Syndrome into an impressive, rapid paced melee. The descriptions of the Brooklyn area, the characters and all the necessary sensory perceptions needed come through in snappy prose. Lethem's description of the 'impulses' and 'partly contollable' symptoms of Tourette are dead-on. Never has this reviewer read anything that so accurately captures the essence of Tourette and the personality in a novel. The reader can feel the symptoms of Tourette welling up in themselves as strongly as the character does on the page. Half detective story and half a case study of a young man with Tourette, Lethem intertwines the two deftly, giving the reader little time to breathe between events. The detective story may be slightly hackneyed and the closeness of the orphans and thier Fagan-like detective mentor could have been more intimately detailed, but Lionel Essrog and his Tourette's make fantastic fodder. Lethem goes for broke. This novel describes Tourette and real life on the streets like no other author has before.
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Summary: Medical or Mystery?
Review: I learned more about Tourette's Syndrome than I ever wanted to know. Sure, the character of Lionel Essrog is sympathetic in his struggle to overcome his disability. And the book is well written. But it does come in two parts: The Tourette's Syndrome, and the murder mystery. It can not stand alone on either. The mystery is rather shallow. My impression is that Tourette is a gag to keep the thing going.
Rating:
Summary: Super character kinda rough around the edges story.
Review: By page 8 I was completely drawn in to Minna and Essrog's characters. A pretty impressive feat in it's own right. Lionel's Tourette's syndrome was handled spectacularly but sensitively and added to a great story set-up by about the first 100 pages. From there the characters continue to crackle and sparkle but the mystery does unwind a bit. The 4-5 page 3rd person wrap up of the mystery does leave my mystery lovers heart a bit downcast and Julia does seem a bit typecast ( but a writer could do worse than stealing a Chandler character). But overall the book is strong and definately worthwhile. If you are a general fiction reader, this mystery/detective story will shake your reading up a bit. If you are a mystery reader you'll be impressed that someone is writing mysteries with great dialogue and characters that really stand out. Something for everyone.
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Summary: Great Character Study but not a Good Mystery
Review: Like many of the reviewers who felt ultimately let down by "Motherless Brooklyn" I felt that the novel began well but...phtt-- all the air was gone by the middle of the story, and the end was hurried, even careless. After all, Lionel never really finds out anything--Julia narrates it to him, and not even directly, which robs the final of even that power. And I do feel that if you write a mystery or a detective story then you must WRITE one, and though character is important, and setting an added bonus, if you don't pay enough attention to the plot then you are just wasting the reader's time. Thus, I would even say that the Tourette's syndrome, (the most fascinating part of the book, and described with much sympathy and skill by the author) ultimately becomes just a gimmick as well. Now, I'm not a philistine, and I love excellent writing as much as anyone, but I feel that the basic demands of the genre must be respected. I'll be glad to read another book by the author, but maybe not a mystery novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Love words? Love this book.
Review: This is a wonderful book. The writing is superb. I am in awe of an author who can transform the verbal tics of a Brooklyn detective with Tourette's syndrome into near poetry. Bored with the same-old same-old? Read this book and savor it.
Rating:
Summary: contagious enthusiasm
Review: Every day I drive past a big sign that says BAILEYS LIQUOR. I'm beginning to overcome the compulsion to scream "Lick her, Bailey," as I pass, but only after a lot of psychotherapy. What have you done to my head, Lethem? I never paid any attention to the voices before I read this book; now I am uncomfortably aware that lots of things go on in our heads that we aren't paying attention to. Luckily, I don't have Tourette's like poor Lionel, or an unsolved murder to obsess about, but this book has given me plenty of, well, stuff to obsess about. The kind that keeps you awake at night and makes you wonder where the line between normal and nuts is these days. Who's the most normal person in this whole book? Freakshow himself, and the fact that we accept the wiseguys and buddhaheads as normal is disturbing. Whoops, gotta go; time for the nurse to bring my medication.
Rating:
Summary: This is a book to savor.
Review: Unlike typical mysteries, you'll want to read this one slowly. The mystery itself is a lot less interesting than the characters and relationships. A rich, fascinating book. This is the first Lethem book I've read -- I can't wait to read his others.
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Summary: Lethem is Essrog
Review: I met Lethem in St.Paul at a reading for "Botherless Mrooklyn" (ha ha) Came in looking for Ellroy and Pelecanos and, after listening to him, came out craddling his latest. He is a very bold reader and a very shy conversationist, I imagine kinda like Lionel Essrog. I guess that charming dichotomy sold me. The book, our matter of discussion here, rules, it's very good, but it's not a mistery, I warn you, even if it has most of the elements, mostly the dialogue and language. It's not "L.A. Confidential" not "King Suckerman" although it's as enjoyable as any of them.
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