Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathon Lethem
First published in 1999, this is an older book that was recently made into a "major motion picture!" You can see the line across the front of the paperback can't you? I saw a trailer for the movie and then I listened to a podcast where Preet Bharara interviewed Edward Norton who wrote, produced, directed and starred in the Hollywood production. It was a good interview and I was intrigued so I grabbed the book.
I actually really liked it. If you can get past the sometimes disconcerting writing style which often takes us inside our hero's experience of having Tourette's Syndrome you can really enjoy a good read. As he takes the hard road to solving (and presumably avenging) his mentor's murder we get Lionel's life story starting with his days in a home for lost boys through his recruitment into a low level gangster's gang and his experiences there. In some ways its a success story-a young man who finds a place where his handicap (if Tourette's can be called such) does not hold him back, where he finds someone who appreciates him for what he can bring to the table instead of only seeing his limitations.
Over the course of the book we get insight into various of Lionel's relationships. The most compelling is his curious relationship with his fellow "Minna Men", especially the lack of trust between these men who are proxy brothers for each other. In terms of the plot, the backstory to the central mystery is a little rushed and a there is a little more hidden and not knowable than I think is good for a top rated mystery. That said, if the author did not either know someone with Tourette's or do a significant amount of research on it, he did a great job of conveying how the syndrome manifests and how the mind works. I don't know if that is actually how it works but throughout the book Tourettes is another character almost...its more than just a trait. Its also used as a device for the author to process things-that was probably my favorite part of the book. Without Lionel's quirks its a relatively stock detective novel and reminded me of the Maltese Falcon (not my favorite book) which I can't imagine was an accident. I'm sure that I'll be checking out the movie when it comes to Netflix or one of our other in-home viewing options...
Rating: #4 Liked It
I actually really liked it. If you can get past the sometimes disconcerting writing style which often takes us inside our hero's experience of having Tourette's Syndrome you can really enjoy a good read. As he takes the hard road to solving (and presumably avenging) his mentor's murder we get Lionel's life story starting with his days in a home for lost boys through his recruitment into a low level gangster's gang and his experiences there. In some ways its a success story-a young man who finds a place where his handicap (if Tourette's can be called such) does not hold him back, where he finds someone who appreciates him for what he can bring to the table instead of only seeing his limitations.
Over the course of the book we get insight into various of Lionel's relationships. The most compelling is his curious relationship with his fellow "Minna Men", especially the lack of trust between these men who are proxy brothers for each other. In terms of the plot, the backstory to the central mystery is a little rushed and a there is a little more hidden and not knowable than I think is good for a top rated mystery. That said, if the author did not either know someone with Tourette's or do a significant amount of research on it, he did a great job of conveying how the syndrome manifests and how the mind works. I don't know if that is actually how it works but throughout the book Tourettes is another character almost...its more than just a trait. Its also used as a device for the author to process things-that was probably my favorite part of the book. Without Lionel's quirks its a relatively stock detective novel and reminded me of the Maltese Falcon (not my favorite book) which I can't imagine was an accident. I'm sure that I'll be checking out the movie when it comes to Netflix or one of our other in-home viewing options...
Rating: #4 Liked It
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