Motherless Brooklyn

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Summary: Story of detective with Tourette's syndrome is great read
Review: Lionel Essrog, the central character in Jonathan Lethem's highly entertaining "Motherless Brooklyn," is not your average detective. Lionel is an orphan with Tourette's syndrome. He's a relatively gentle young man whose condition causes him to obsess on small details, gobble down one sandwich after another, tap people on the shoulder five times or yell things at inopportune moments. Lionel is one of four young men from a Brooklyn orphanage employed as drivers and detectives by the mysterious Frank Minna. Minna is a smalltime Brooklyn wise guy worshipped by the four orphans. When Frank winds up dead, Lionel goes on a mission to find his mentor's killer. Lionel may sound crazy, but his condition masks an intelligence few recognize. Frank kept dangerous company, including a nasty brother who practices Zen Buddhism, and two old, decrepit mobsters who worship their long dead mother. Lionel's investigation puts him at odds with his fellow "Minna Men" and endangers his life. By the end of his unorthodox investigation (during which he gets attacked by Zen Buddhists), Lionel has suffers more loss and discovers difficult truths about his friends. Lionel is wonderfully original character - simultaneously likeable and annoying. When he finds love briefly, a reader can't help but be happy for him. But it's just as easy to understand when he gets dumped. "Motherless Brooklyn" succeeds beautifully as a noir novel, but it's more than that. Using Lionel's condition, as well as the colorful speech of Minna, Lethem has a ball with language. Lethem's word play, humor and genre bending - not to mention the use he makes of the Brooklyn milieu - make "Motherless Brooklyn" a great, memorable book.

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Summary: Lethem's best so far . . .
Review: This novel is something of a departure for Lethem, all of whose previous work has been experimental and occasionally bizarre in structure, theme, and characterization. It's nearly a traditional straight narrative -- and a good one, too. Four somewhat inept orphans from St. Vincent's Home for Boys in Brooklyn -- the "Motherless Brooklyn" of the title -- are taken under the wing of Frank Minna, local fixer and small-time hood, who becomes the center of their universe. And fifteen years later, the "Minna Men" are still in thrall, carrying out shady errands under cover of being operatives of a detective agency. One of the four is Lionel Esrog, the narrator, who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. His uncontrollable outbursts and tics are tolerated by his peers and by his acquaintances in the neighborhood from long habit, but everyone seems to equate his behaviors with a lack of intelligence. Lionel, mostly self-educated and far from stupid, is in fact a very perceptive and self-aware person. Then Frank is murdered almost under Lionel's nose and he must try to find the killer and exact vengeance while struggling to control his Tourette's. His quest through the web of unexpected relationships and parts of Brooklyn he never knew make for a riveting story. But the real star here is Lionel's own interior self, his painfully developed coping skills, his constant self-observation. Lethem is always masterful in his use of the English language but he excels in letting Lionel's syndrome reveal his thoughts. This is a highly original author's most mature work to date.

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Summary: It's all about Lionel
Review: I came to this novel pretty randomly, knowing Lethem only through an excerpt of 'Fortress of Solitude' that showed up in the New Yorker a ways back. I knew he'd done a bit of literary sci-fi, before crossing over into realism, of a sort. Other than that, I was a blank slate.

And I ended up liking this book a great deal. Mostly because of the main character, Lionel Essrog, who's just about one of the most interesting characters I've run across in a long time. His voice, Tourette's sufferer that he is, is quite unique, and gives Lethem an excuse to indulge in lovely flights of wordplay that, in the hands of another narrator, would come across as show-offy. In the case of Lionel, it fits perfectly and shows that Lethem has some pretty phenomenal chops, writerly speaking.

The story, such as it is, is engaging enough. Nothing special (though the occasional meta-fictional touches are always appreciated), though I'm not a gigantic fan of the detective genre - if I were, perhaps I'd be more into it. The supporting characters are nicely drawn, their relationships well delineated (though I was left wanting more of the characters' history). The romantic sub-plot is a bit disposable, but it doesn't seem glaringly out of place.

All of which is another way of saying that this is an above average book, boosted way, way up by it's unique and compelling narrator. Definitely worth a read.

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Summary: Best audiobook ever!
Review: First off, I've read the novel as well, and it's easily Lethem's best. I worked for five years for a guy with Tourette's, and Lethem did is homework. The thing you don't get on the printed page is the abruptness, the change of tempo, that a verbal tick, especially an unsuccesful suppression of one, can come out with such lightning speed in the midst of an otherwise normal conversation.

Which is where Frank Muller comes in. I listen to audiobooks at work, usually 40 or 50 hours a week. I rarely revisit one, but in the case of Motherless Brooklyn, I can't stop going back to the library and getting it for another listen.

There are some other good audiobooks out there, to be sure, and some other gifted narrators, but this combination of book and narrator is the ultimate.

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Summary: Great subway read for Brooklynites
Review: Narrator Lionel Essrog's observations are so sensitively drawn, that I became sincerely attached to him AND to the neighborhoods that he knows as well as his manic mind. "Motherless Brooklyn" is the name that Frank Minna, the godfather character, gives to his group of scrawny "Minna Men" when he first hires them out of an orphanage to work as his moving team/chauffeurs/go-to boys. Lethem's portrayal of the relationship between Minna and Lionel -- replete with classic dialogue, and a postmortem poignance -- is empty of any condescension, as is the narrative itself from Lionel's perspective. Because of this leveling of all distracting judgment (the same tough-loving straightforwardness that Lionel appreciates in Frank Minna) I think this book teaches the basic, golden-rule lesson that everyone deserves a little respect and a chance in life.

Lionel's independence is something he's had to maintain all along as an orphan and as a freak in others' eyes, and it's rewarding to see him beating out the other characters in smarts as he becomes a real detective. He plays his disorder to his advantage because everyone underestimates him or regards him as a nuisance. Lethem's achievement is not the detective plotline, but his portrayal of Lionel from Lionel's own point of view -- he never wallows in self-pity, and the reader sees him as a savvy upstart with an independent, secret angle on everything. I especially liked the abbreviated relationship with the girl at the Zendo.

This is all not to mention the whirlwind wordplay that peppers the whole book, and makes Tourette's syndrome seem like a symptom of genius that more people should manifest in this life we take too seriously.

As someone new to Brooklyn, I loved the geography (street names, intersections) that gave a real flavor to every scene.

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Summary: Light reading from a literary heavyweight
Review: As one strolls through the prose of this fine novel, they are enraptured in an accessible and engaging story. This novel holds the interest of even A.D.D.-ish readers, but still manages to entertain and impress the snooty literati. Lethem's style is so very different from anyone else's writing these days, and his content is so contemporary and intimate that once started, this novel is hard to put down. Part gumshoe, part comedy, part commentary, Motherless Brooklyn represents the crossover of one of America's great writers from 'scifi' to 'this new thing', and who knows where he will next take his growing following.

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Summary: I Want Tourette's!
Review: This lively novel is at once a kind of mystery and at the same time a delightful romp through the streets of New York. The central character suffers from Tourette's syndrome, and it is to Lethem's credit that he informs readers about the affliction without being condescending to his character, or making fun of other sufferers. In fact, he makes Tourette's sound like fun, which of course, it isn't. Still the book succeeds in drawing a number of lovely character portraits and in creating a lively plot. Good stuff. Deserves many readers.

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Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: I read this on a recommendation because of my love for Fight Club. I don't think the comparison is fair and I found myself bored from start to finish. The prose is dense and colorful, which is why I gave it two stars, but it is too cumbersome for a story and a lead character such as this. The plot never twisted, I was never surprised, and I didn't relate to any characters nor learn anything from the whole book. The Tourette's theme, in my opinion, seemed wedged into the story at times, and would only amuse the most simple-humored. Maybe Edward Norton will make something out of this, but I sure couldn't.

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Summary: A big cut above your average thriller
Review: Burned by some much-hyped misfires by young lions, I waited until "Motherless Brooklyn" came out in paperback to pick it up, and even then it sat around for a while as I prepared myself for another disappointment. Was I wrong! Jonathan Lethem does a great job creating a fascinating character in Lionel Essrog, and he has a real talent for plot and pacing as well. But the best part of the book are Lionel's riffs on language, prompted by Tourette's syndrome and often erupting from him at the worst times. It never feels exploitative (unlike parts of "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time") and Lionel's character remains complex and his actions unpredictable in a good way. Great book by an inspired writer whose work I'll start seeking out in earnest.

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Summary: Wheels Within Wheels...
Review: There are many negative reviews focused on Motherless Brooklyn's weak plot. I can see how the murder-mystery of the novel may pale in comparison to a Hammett or Chandler design, but come on...??? Would it have been realistic to have a bunch of high school drop-out, low-level thugs who have never fired a gun or solved a previous case, effectively traverse their way through a complex, multi-faceted whodunit and come out on top? These are regular guys, maybe even less than regular. They are definitely not comic book or legendary sleuths; they are no Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe...they're not even an Inspector Clouseau.

Besides, the plot is merely a vehicle for a strangely compelling and brutally honest character study of Lionel Essrog, a 33 year old man who's never had a family, never been out of Brooklyn, but does have Tourette's syndrome. This could have been simply a gimmick, a device for fresh detective novel, but Lionel is self-effacing without becoming pitiable, awkward without becoming pathetic and brave without becoming heroic; he is truly original.

Also fascinating is Lethem's ability to take a walking cliché like Frank Minna and make him an interesting and unusually memorable character. He's a nobody...a hood, a prankster; there are millions of him out there, telling the same jokes, but he meant something to someone, to Lionel, and we see that sometimes that's all it takes.

Compared to other "private-dick" crime novels, I can see the enthusiasts not being completely sated, but for the rest of us...the story transcends the genre. It is a sincere, convincing slice-of-life. I enjoyed it and am eager to read more from Lethem.