I'm currently reading "Motherless Brooklyn" by Jonathan
Lethem, about two-thirds through. I think it's a very
engaging story, quite funny in some places, hard-boiled in
subject matter, and I love Lethem's language. On the other
hand - I'm not sure I buy the language of the novel as the
voice of the character. The narrator grew up in an orphanage
in Brooklyn and dropped out of high school to go work for a
small time hood. We're told that he read every book in the
library of the orphanage, but I don't think that quite
justifies the "book smart" language of the narration. The
character has Tourette's syndrome and suffers extreme verbal
tics, and I guess that the author is drawing a contrast
between his very fluid use of language when he's writing and
the difficulties he has in speech. But even his speech when
he's not tic-cing seems a little off for this character.
Lethem can clearly write convincing colloquial speech because
many other characters in the book use it. So I'm not sure
exactly what's going on here. Still, enjoying the book a lot.
Lethem has a great eye for little details; probably the only
chase scene in history that's disrupted because the chasee
has an EZ Pass for his car and the chaser doesn't.
carrie
- Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and
wicked - Jane Austen
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