MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, by Jonathan Lethem

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

THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE, by Orhan Pamuk

The Museum of Innocence is the most recent novel by Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer who was awarded the Nobel  Prize in 2006. I'm a big fan of Pamuk and have enjoyed many of the books he has written, such as The Black Book, The New Life, Red, and especially Snow. The Museum of Innocence is an intense, incredibly sad book that traces the obsessive first love of the young protagonist Kemal for a beautiful shopgirl named Fusun. Without giving away the plot, I can say that Kemal ends up creating a kind of shrine by collecting items he associates with his love. As is often true of Pamuk's novels, the city of Istanbul stands as not only the setting but as a main character in the work. It's a long, slow, intense, sad, and beautifully tragic novel. By the time you finish reading it, you will feel emotionally drained but better for the experience.

Click here for a review of the book from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/books/review/Howard-t.html

UPDATE: I read in the newspaper on 30 April 2012 that Pamuk has set up a literal Museum of Innocence. Like  the one in his novel, this museum is a collection of everyday items associated with the novel, and more generally with life in Istanbul from the 1950s to today. Click here to view the story of the museum from the New York times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/books/orhan-pamuk-opens-museum-based-on-his-novel-in-istanbul.html

AMERICAN RUST by Philipp Meyer

Set solidly among the derelict steel mills of the Rust Belt around Buell, Pennsylvania, American Rust is a sad tale of desperate people stuck in a decaying community. A few hours after one of the protagonists, smart and nerdy Issac English finally makes a move to get out of that place, he and his tough guy friend Billy Poe get caught up in accidently murdering a homeless man. Poe ends up getting arrested and jailed for the crime that Issac technically committed. Issac hits the road, with $4000 stolen from his parapalegic father, romanticising his boxcar-riding journey to the promised land of Berkeley, California. The plot traces his journey, the incarceration of Billy Poe, and some complications with the town chief of police and Poe's mother. Throughout the story, the darkly beautiful countryside reflects the mood of the characters and their desperation to extricate themselves from their troubled lives. It's a solid, well told first novel with a lot of heart.

click here to read a review of the book from NY Times:   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/books/review/Robinson-t.html

ED KING, by David Guterson

The novel is a retelling of the Oedipus myth, set in modern times (early 1960s to second decade of the 21st century). Being a retelling, the plot is a non-issue; the art is in the way it is retold. Guterson does not opt for any surprises, as even a reader who does not know the original Oedipus story is warned of what is to come by the chapter titles. Framed in the silicon valley hi-tech subculture, he story comes across as an often sarcastic moral commentary on contemporary society. Its irony comes prepackaged in the plot.  It is a skillful work, often humorous, that held my interest.

click here for a review of the book fromThe Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/20/ed-king-david-guterson-review