I can think of few people who love books as passionately as Jonathan Lethem - and this collection is a great testimony of a lifetime dedicated to the cause of fiction.

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/157198...Jonathan Lethem generally provides enough essays in any given collection that are certainly eye-opening and have the tendency to teach us something we did not know. Throughout his writing career he has proven to be adept at this exercise. And in More Alive and Less Lonely this is again the case. However, and for the most part, what actually interests Lethem in this book bores me to death. But when I eventually trudged my way to his essays and reviews on Th...

Another tedious anthology of writing referencing exclusively male authors. There's nothing wrong with male authors but Letham needs to expand his circle of reading or at the very least title his book accurately: On Books by Male Authors.

This book was a big disappointment. I had not read any Lethem before trying this collection of essays. I was expecting a meditative collection of essays on writers and books. Instead, it was just a New York Mishmash of articles and set pieces sold as essays. Nothing impressive here. Save your money.

This witty and sometimes pretentious collection of essays and witticisms demonstrate that Jonathan Lethem is such a lover of all things fiction, non fiction, and film- that his brain is definitely all over the place, but with a passion and love for anything creative; and perhaps open in the realm of possibilities. I really enjoyed his essays on Philip Roth, Kazuo Ishiguro and Malcolm Braly- and Mr. Lethem is great at getting you to pick up a book or two.

It is what it is. I was not super familiar with this author before coming into the collection of essays/book intros/critiques, but was curious about what authors he might mention. A good portion of the references were pretty obscure or just fiction from before the 2000s so if you’re looking for contemporary criticisms maybe skip this one. Overall not bad and piqued my curiosity about a few authors here and there, but unless you’re a real fan of literary criticism, I’d say stick with Lethem’s fic...

I love Lethem, and I love him most when he is writing about books. This is an awesome collection and it is filled with new books to hunt down and devour.

Lethem's tone in this collection of reviews and literary criticism reminds me of debating books and music with your smartest, funniest friend who will still love you after it's over! Such fun!

Two decades worth of critical essays, reviews, and anthology pieces make up this collection from Jonathan Lethem. He's no stranger to writing, having published 10 novels previously, and countless other articles and projects. I am blown away by Lethem's critical insights and his range of knowledge from Kafka to Roth to Wallace. He writes in a way that is undeniably true, even if it's an opinion piece. This is going to be one of those books that is a staple for any book lover.

I love Jonathan Lethem. The only writer I know who can use words like 'japery' and 'insouciance' next to 'Batman'. This is just a collection mostly of introductions he's written to other books, which maybe sounds dry, but collected together it turns out to be a powerful reflection of his relationships to, well, books (and writers). This collection does a better job of that than essays explicitly reflecting on writing because of that unintentionality, this accidental collection. I can't imagine a...

Lethem is literature’s ultimate fanboy, something he celebrates in this assemblage of reviews, literary introductions and bird walks from the last 20 years or so. In it, we observe Lethem’s signature esoteric fascination with books, records, even slices of pizza. He is a champion of unknown authors, yet also claims luminaries like Kafka for himself. The collection offers a comprehensive view of his evolution as a critic — from the “erratic booklust” of his teens to the distinct intellectualism a...

I rarely pass on a Lethem book. Even though i feel i’ve come up short on some of his stories, there’s always some great insight that i find, some are small gems, nuggets, or Mother Lodes. This is a varied collection of musings on books, writers, writing, movies, culture, and reading from Lethem. Some essays or review like articles were easy in, others required a little knowledge of the material, being an avid reader, movie watcher, and culturally aware individual, that helped, but its a rare boo...

Lethem is a very talented novelist but he is also a skilled essayist. More than anything he is a literary enthusiast who has read lots of interesting books. I read most of this collection while sitting on a beach and flying in an airplane. The majority of the articles are quite short and can be read like literary potato chips but i think I would have appreciated the book more if i had spread reading the essays.Lethem is really good on a lot of good writers, especially the inimitable Thomas Berge...

A fine collection of previous (with the exception of a few) essays and forewords Lethem has written as critic-at-large. It's rare to encounter a successful and often inventive novelist who proves equally adept as cultural critic. Lethem doesn't shy away from his literary influences, the artists and subsequent works that helped to shape his own unique artistic vision. More Alive and Less Lonely is at once polished, conversational/casual, as well as candid in its passions, a delight for the true b...

A book of essays and cultural criticism by a noted New York Times critic. The essays I enjoyed the most were actually written in the late 1990's and had to do with books on film noir, character actors (which I ordered to read), music critics in their heyday and in an essay called "The Loneliest Book I Ever Read," a loving memoir of a rare children's book from his own life, "The Happy Valley," by Eric Berne (Games People Play) and illustrated by Sylvie Selig. I'll be checking out her art online.

"I developed my passion for novels while working in used bookstores. I've spent my life since that time being baffled at how difficult it is to get a conversation started about noncanonical writing that's more than a few years old." True in general but also true for this particular work. While this book is not entirely successful in its attempt to start that conversation, it at least leaves you mulling over just which books you'd be willing to go to bat for in a similar way.

Jonathan Lethem is the award-winning author of “Motherless Brooklyn” and other novels. His latest book is an inside look at his thoughts on literature. He talks to us about the importance reading, what inspires him, and how he feels about tough critics. Listen here: https://viewpointsradio.wordpress.com...

I feel like if we met at a party Johnathan Lethem and I would not enjoy one another's company. The Venn diagrams of our reading have minimal overlap and when they do, our readings seem divergent enough to cause annoyance. But then he goes and writes the most brilliant essay on Dickens I've read outside of Chesterton, or something of equivalent insight, sooooooo..... Whatareyagonnado?

I enjoy Lethem’s fiction but usually find his essays and literary criticism dull. In full disclosure, though, I did end up skimming a few of these. I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't really like books like this--an author's collected essays over time, taken out of context--but I did enjoy The Counter-Roth, What's Old Is New (about his love of NYRB Classics, which I also love), and Footnote.

For better or worse I pretty much love whatever Lethem does it perhaps goes back to meeting him at the Free library with Lydia Davis anyway this is a good book read it he also has another book coming out in the fall I believe it is called The Feral Detective so read Jonathan Lethem I'm for Lethem

Further evidence that I prefer Lethem’s nonfiction writing to his fiction, although I continue to read everything by him that I can lay my hands on. As others have noted, these entries are prompts to load up one’s library queue with several of the titles/volumes covered.

Highly recommend! The perfect book to read between books. I was pleasantly surprised as I did not know quite what to expect, especially since the book was a gift!

I don't usually read introductions to books, so a book comprised only introductions was strange. Lethem has a lot of interests (an "amuse" bouche). I added some choice selections to my reading list.

5/10. Excited to add another 10+ books to my to-read list, but I felt cheated since it was just a collection of earlier intros/forwards for other authors.

the Malcovich "interview", Pynchon, and Lorrie Moore review were huge standouts. the rest were kinda average.

This is a great broad collection of writing about other writing that I'm sure will lead me to reading many other books I hadn't ever heard of before, including one I have already picked up because of the glowing review here (More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts). This collection functions as more than a list of references and recommendations, but it also shows how much influence lists and recommendations of literature can have on people's lives. The three essays about Thomas Berger are the...

These reviews are all "layers of gloss on someone else's boat," as Lethem says on p. 172. If he felt a faint sense of embarrassment about some of the pieces, that's because, in all honesty, they do not need to exist. It is a tribute to Lethem's literary star power that this book exists at all, as full of name dropping and elitist anecdotes as it is. It is offensive that literature is gatekept by white, middle aged Jonathans such as he, and I say this as someone who enjoyed his books.This was a c...

This is the first book of Lethem's that I've read. And despite how much I enjoyed some of his writing, I could only take so much of his gushing reviews and introductions of books, movies, and music that he has loved and which, mostly, I have never heard of.

Recommended by Talya Zax of The Forward.