A book that brought Jonathan Lethem into the vision of many readers, Motherless Brooklyn is an inventive, fun, postmodern riff on the detective novels we all secretly love. It's the story of a young man, Lionel Essig, who has the distinction of having Tourettes' Syndrom and being an orphan. Lionel, who narrates the story, works in a limo service/detective agency whose owner, a neighborhood player/small time hustler named Frank Minna finds himself stabbed to death at the bottom of a dumpster. Essig and his two partners go on a mission to find his killer and end up unravelling all sorts of tangled confusion . Tourette's, being speech related, gives Lethem the opportunity to pull all sorts of fun linguistic gags. As in his beautiful later book Fortress of Solitude, the setting of Brooklyn looms large as part of the book, which drips with perfect atmosphere. It's a hugely entertaining, clever, funny, spot-on novel. A great intro to Lethem.
Click here for a review of the book by January magazine: http://januarymagazine.com/crfiction/motherless.html
Click here for a review of the book by January magazine: http://januarymagazine.com/crfiction/motherless.html
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