A fictionalized story of the author's childhood in Brooklyn; at least I hope it is, because if it isn't, then Lethem is depicting as predators, what seems to be every black and Puerto Rican teenager in Brooklyn. If it is autobiographical, then Lethem had the worst luck of any white kid in the history of American urban blight, getting robbed, bullied, and beat up daily throughout his childhood by every black kid that saw him on the street. He depicts this sort of crime and intimidation as a given...

Now that I've read this book, I share Lethem's amazement that James Wood reviewed it without mentioning the magic ring. Though the ring vanishes for long stretches of time, it is pivotal at several junctures, especially during the final scene between protagonist Dylan Ebdus, whose story of growing up white in non-white Brooklyn during the '70s this is, and his best friend, Mingus Rude, son of a famous soul singer, tagger, and, eventually, claimed by crack and consigned to the prison system. This...

Second Lethem. Last Lethem.

Along with The Bronx is Burning which alternates the stories of The New York Yankees and the hunt for The Son of Sam it captured New York in the late 70's perfectly.

Video-review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F9Gf...An epic tale of gentrification and crushed hopes, The Fortress of Solitude is one of the densest books I've ever read, each page packed with lives and dreams and misery. It's depressing as fuck and crazy on so many levels, but for the sheer glow of its ambitiousness, it's a pleasure to read for anyone who's passionate about American literature and culture.

Well, this is the one. If you only read one book this year, read this one. It's devastating, brilliant, all those things the blurbs say it is.

Storytelling has changed. It used to be that stories unfolded slowly, sometimes even lethargically, until rising to the climactic finish. Think about the classics you like—most likely: slow start, strong finish. These days, stories begin at a rapid pace, but seem to lose momentum by the end. When I think about recent popular titles, even ones I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, this disappointment is usually present. Maybe it’s the immediacy of the modern-day culture, but it’s rare to find an ending up to

Fortress of Solitude depicts a world in which there is no such thing as a responsible adult. It might be deemed a coming of age novel except its two central characters, Dylan (white) and Mingus (black), whom we meet when they are both twelve, never grow up even though by the end of the novel they are both in their thirties. Ironically the impoverished Brooklyn neighbourhood where they live does grow up, does become a responsible adult: by the time Dylan is in his thirties, it has become gentrifi...

CRITIQUE:About the StarsThis novel and review had me perplexed.I regard myself as a Lethem fan, basically because I loved "As She Climbed Across the Table" so much.However, both on my first pre-GR reading (in 2007) and my recent re-reading of this novel, I was relatively disappointed. This time, I decided to adhere to my original three-star rating, although this is by no means a recommendation that other readers not read the novel.The star rating perplexed me for two reasons. One is that I g...

Midway through:Fortress has been sitting on my shelf for over a year. A recent trip (just returned) to NYC, Manhattan, and a dip of the toe into Brooklyn (DUMBO and W'Burg mostly) helped elevate this book to the top of the list. Hours of plane time from the left to right coast and back again makes for some serious reading time. Indeed, Fortress has thus far lived up to it's reputation, both among GoodReaders and the Lit World in general. Finished: The second half was in fact better then the firs...

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK WHAT YEAR IS IT

What a shit storm. This is one of the more plodding books I have engaged in my time as a reader. It ranks up there with one of the only other books I have abandoned, Updike's Rabbit, Run. Updike and Lethem also hold the distinction of being some of the worst writers of prose I have encountered. My god, I hate the way they write.Not recommended.

A fantastic coming-of-age tale set in mid-to-late 1970s Brooklyn. Two motherless boys grow up next door to one another: Mingus Rude, son of an R&B singer, and Dylan Ebdus, son of a University Professor, grow up together on their block following first their passion for comic books (the title is drawn from the name of Superman's secret base in the Arctic) and later their love of graffiti and hip-hop. First and foremost a tale of friendship's makings and falling apart, Lethem also adds a healthy do...

As a rule, I veer far from anything with “coming-of-age” smells, so falling into this near 600-page monster in which Lethem autofictionalises his childhood in painstaking detail was something of an act of readerly carelessness, where this reader almost howled at the umpteenth use of ‘spaldeen’ and ‘ailanthus’, two words that needed executing very early on in the novel. Having waded through the 300-page shrine at the temple of Onanostalgia, God of Masturbatory Reminiscence, the second half of the...

I finally finished this thing. It's pretty good, but the first half is so much better than the second half. There is some real magic amidst the nostalgia in Lethem's story of growing up in Brooklyn in the '70s. But the whole beginning seems like it's leading up to some great climax, and that climax never comes. As the main character grows up (an exaggeration for the emotionally underdeveloped thirtysomething he is by the end), he becomes a wanky, self-absorbed snob-rock geek, which may have been...

I half expected to find that Jonathan Lethem is one of those authors that readers either love or hate, but was surprised by how mad the people who hate him are. Personally, I fall into the former camp - those who love Mr. Lethem's work. Let me explain why.Jonathan Lethem creates the most absurd scenarios possible and then crafts ingenious narratives around them. To describe a book like Fortress of Solitude to someone not already familiar with Mr. Lethem's work requires a lot of qualification. To...

I read this a couple years ago, and the main thing I remember about it is that the first half is incredible, while much of the second half is retarded. Maybe now that I myself am older and lamer like the character gets in the book, I'd be able to relate better, and it wouldn't bother me so much.... Anyway, I liked this book a lot. The majority of it's amazing, enough so to make up for the crummy bits, which probably aren't actually that crummy, but only seemed so by comparison.You have to get up...

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Boy in Brooklyn. A Künstlerroman that is a tad uneven. When Lethem has his magic prose ring on, however, the book absolutely floats. At times FoS reminds me simultaneously of that middle space between Chabon and Delillo.

Jonathan Lethem's lyrical novel The Fortress of Solitude begins with a forceful act of imagination: Isabel Vendle's arbitrary conjuration of "Boerum Hill" from within the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, despite the absence of any natural elevation, using nothing more than lines drawn on a map.The girls on wheels were the new thing, spotlit to start the show: white people were returning to Dean Street.—p.4That early sentence stopped me cold, at least for a moment. Gentrification isn't...

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)Soon after opening CCLaP in the summer of 2007, one of the first books I had a chance to review was what at the time was Jonathan Lethem's latest, You Don't Love Me Yet; and as long-time readers remember, I found that book to be a nearly unreadable pile of horsesh-t, so bad in fact that it served as