Men and Cartoons
Title:
Men and Cartoons
By:
Jonathan Lethem
Cost:
$30
Where:
Select Bookstores
Booklyn boy Jonathan Lethem has been burning up the NYC writing scene ever since his book The Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn was named Esquire's Novel of the Year and won The National Book Critics Circle Award. For all the fuss, his latest offering isn't that sharp. There are some cute ideas such as the Sylvia Plath Sheep project in which a scientist isolates the suicide gene and breeds a flock ofwoollies that are worn down by angst. But beyond cute ideas, the themes of loneliness and failed relationships are all played out in a convoluted NYC dialect where everyone is ultra-smart, incredibly quick-witted and caustic to the last. If all the people in NYC thought and spoke like that the whole city would be made up of Jerry Seinfelds.
Features:
Nine short stories that present characters struggling with loneliness, failed relationships and the consequences of strange powers.
Format: Book
Motivation: Improve your dinner conversation
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