New Releases by Jonathan Lethem

A dazzling novel from one of our finest writers—an epic yet intimate family saga about three generations of all-American radicals At the center of Jonathan Lethem’s superb new novel stand two extraordinary women: Rose Zimmer, the aptly nicknamed Red Queen of Sunnyside, Queens, is an unreconstructed Communist who savages neighbors, family, and political comrades with the ferocity of her personality and the absolutism of her beliefs. Her precocious and willful daughter, Miriam, equally passionate in her activism, flees Rose’s influence to embrace the dawning counterculture of Greenwich Village. These women cast spells over the men in their lives: Rose’s aristocratic German Jewish husband, Albert; her cousin, the feckless chess hustler Lenny Angrush; Cicero Lookins, the brilliant son of her black cop lover; Miriam’s (slightly fraudulent) Irish folksinging husband, Tommy Gogan; their bewildered son, Sergius. Flawed and idealistic, Lethem’s characters struggle to inhabit the utopian dream in an America where radicalism is viewed with bemusement, hostility, or indifference. As the decades pass—from the parlor communism of the ’30s, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, ragged ’70s communes, the romanticization of the Sandinistas, up to the Occupy movement of the moment—we come to understand through Lethem’s extraordinarily vivid storytelling that the personal may be political, but the political, even more so, is personal. Lethem’s characters may pursue their fates within History with a capital H, but his novel is—at its mesmerizing, beating heart—about love.

National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book A Best Book of the Year —Austin American-Statesman Includes a new, previously uncollected piece: "My Internet" In The Ecstasy of Influence, the incomparable Jonathan Lethem has compiled a career-spanning collection of occasional pieces—essays, memoir, liner notes, fiction, and criticism—which also doubles as a novelist’s manifesto, self-portrait, and confession. The result is an insightful, charming, and entertaining grab bag that covers everything from great novels to old films to graffiti to cyberculture.

Witzig und befreiend fordert »Bekenntnisse eines Tiefstaplers« konventionelles Wissen heraus und eröffnet tiefe Einblicke in die kaleidoskopische Natur der künstlerischen Praxis, die Rolle des Schriftsteller im Kulturbetrieb und die Art, wie eigene Lebenserfahrung die geistigen Obsessionen prägt. Dabei sind Inspiration von außen und Plagiarismus für Jonathan Lethem die entscheidenden Einflüsse jeglicher Kunst. Diese Idee verfolgt er sowohl in seinem berühmten Essay »Die Ekstase des Zitats« als auch in seinen Reflexionen über Autoren von Philip K. Dick bis Bret Easton Ellis oder wenn er große Musiker wie James Brown ins Studio begleitet. Frei nach dem Motto: Mein iTunes und mein eReader, c ́est moi.

It''s the summer of 1979. A 15-year-old boy listens to WNEW on the radio in his bedroom in Brooklyn. A monotone voice (it''s the singer''s) announces into dead air in between songs "The Talking Heads have a new album, it''s called Fear of Music" - and everything spins outward from that one moment. Jonathan Lethem treats Fear of Music (the third album by the Talking Heads, and the first produced by Brian Eno) as a masterpiece - edgy, paranoid, funky, addictive, rhythmic, repetitive, spooky and fun. He scratches obsessively at the album''s songs, guitars, rhythms, lyrics, packaging, downtown origins, and legacy, showing how Fear of Music hints at the directions (positive and negative) the band would take in the future. Lethem transports us again to the New York City of another time - tackling one of his great adolescent obsessions and illuminating the ways in which we fall in and out of love with works of art.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A complusively readable riff on the classic detective novel from America''s most inventive novelist. "A half-satirical cross between a literary novel and a hard-boiled crime story narrated by an amateur detective with Tourette''s syndrome.... The dialogue crackles with caustic hilarity.... Unexpectedly moving." —The Boston Globe Brooklyn''s very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, Lionel Essrog is an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent''s Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna''s limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel''s colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim''s widow skips town. Lionel''s world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head. Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original, captivating homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.

“One of the cleverest, most accessibly in-depth film books released this year . . . a smart-ass novelist exploring a cheesy-cheeky ‘80s sci-fi flick.”—Hartford Advocate Deep Focus is a series of film books with a fresh approach. Take the smartest, liveliest writers in contemporary letters and let them loose on the most vital and popular corners of cinema history: midnight movies, the New Hollywood of the sixties and seventies, film noir, screwball comedies, international cult classics, and more . . . Kicking off the series is Jonathan Lethem’s take on They Live, John Carpenter’s 1988 classic amalgam of deliberate B-movie, sci-fi, horror, anti-Yuppie agitprop. Lethem exfoliates Carpenter’s paranoid satire in a series of penetrating, free-associational forays into the context of a story that peels the human masks off the ghoulish overlords of capitalism. Taking into consideration classic Hollywood cinema and science fiction—as well as popular music and contemporary art and theory—They Live provides a wholly original perspective on Carpenter’s subversive classic.

Una comedia romántica ambientada en Los Angeles con una peculiar banda musical como protagonista. Jonathan Lethem recrea las peripecias de una banda indie de escaso éxito en Los Ángeles. Lucinda, la bajista del grupo, trabaja en una oficina de reclamaciones. El trabajo es muy aburrido, pero hay un cliente que tras varias llamadas acaba seduciéndola con sus brillantes reflexiones subidas de tono. Matthew, el cantante de la banda, vive obsesionado por la tristeza de una canguro del zoo y está a punto de tomar una decisión desesperada. Bedwin, el genio apocado del grupo, sufre un bloqueo creativoque le impide escribir nuevas canciones y cree que la solución se encuentra en algún fotograma de Deseos humanos. Y Denise, que es el alma del grupo, está decidida a hacer lo que sea necesario para que la banda salga adelante. Un buen día, en un ensayo, Lucinda improvisa unas frases inconexas: el germen de una canción. Cuando Bedwin las transforma en un tema de éxito, el grupo salta a la fama. Pero esto solo traerá más problemas. Del autor de Huérfanos de Brooklyn llega esta divertida novela rebosante de sexo, música y humor.

Esta es la historia de un chico negro y uno blanco: Dylan Ebdus y Mingus Rude, vecinos que comparten sus días y defienden su amistad a capa y espada desde un rincón de Nueva York. Esta es la historia de su infancia en Brooklyn, un barrio habitado mayoritariamente por negros y en el que comienza a emerger una nueva clase blanca. Esta es la historia de la América de los años setenta, cuando las decisiones más intrascendentes -qué música escuchar, qué zona ocupar en el autobús escolar, en qué bar desayunar- desataban conflictos raciales y políticos. Esta es la historia de lo que habría pasado si dos adolescentes obsesionados con superhéroes de cómic hubieran desarrollado poderes similares a los de los personajes de ficción. Esta es la historia que Jonathan Lethem nació para contar. Esta es La fortaleza de la soledad. Reseña: «La fortaleza de la soledad ejemplifica, sin necesidad de grandes aspavientos vanguardistas, nuestro paradójico signo de los tiempos.» Qué Leer

The third and final volume of an overview of the author''s work features novels written during his later years, including "A Maze of Death" and "The Divine Invasion, " when the themes of religious revelation became predominant.

Bestselling author Jonathan Lethem delivers a hilarious novel about love, art, and what it''s like to be young in Los Angeles. Lucinda Hoekke''s daytime gig as a telephone operator at the Complaint Line—an art gallery''s high-minded installation piece—is about as exciting as listening to dead air. Her real passion is playing bass in her forever struggling, forever unnamed band. But recently a frequent caller, the Complainer, as Lucinda dubs him, has captivated her with his philosophical musings. When Lucinda''s band begins to incorporate the Complainer''s catchy, existential phrases into their song lyrics, they are suddenly on the cusp of their big break. There is only one problem: the Complainer wants in. BONUS MATERIAL: This edition includes an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem''s Dissident Gardens.

Presents the first ten volumes of the "Omega: The Unknown" comic, which features the adventures of an alien superhero and an orphaned teenage boy who shares his destiny.

Following in the footsteps of the late great Lester Bangs -- the most revered and irreverent of rock ''n'' roll critics -- twenty-four celebrated writers have penned stories inspired by great songs. Just as Bangs cast new light on a Rod Stewart classic with his story "Maggie May," about a wholly unexpected connection between an impressionable young man and an aging, alcoholic hooker, the diverse, electrifying stories here use songs as a springboard for a form dubbed the lit riff. Alongside Bangs''s classic work, you''ll find stories by J.T. LeRoy, who puts a recovering teenage drug abuser in a dentist''s chair with nothing but the Foo Fighters''s "Everlong" -- blaring through the P.A. -- to fight the pain; Jonathan Lethem, whose narrator looks back on his lost innocence just as an extramarital affair careens to an end -- this to the tune "Speeding Motorcycle" as recorded by Yo La Tengo; and Jennifer Belle, who envisions a prequel to Paul Simon''s "Graceland" -- one that takes place at a children''s birthday party replete with a real live kangaroo. With original contributions from Tom Perrotta, Nelson George, Amanda Davis, Lisa Tucker, Aimee Bender, Darin Strauss, and many more -- riffing on everyone from Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen to the White Stripes, Cat Power, and Bob Marley -- this is both an astounding collection of short stories and an extraordinary experiment in words and music. Soundtrack available from Saturation Acres Music & Recording Co.

Seven futuristic stories. In The Happy Man, a dead man is periodically let out of Hell so he can support his family, while in The Hardened Criminals the walls of a jail are made of convicts in suspended animation. By the author of Gun, with Occasional Music.

In a volume he describes as "a series of covert and not-so-covert autobiographical pieces," Jonathan Lethem explores the nature of cultural obsession—from western films and comic books, to the music of Pink Floyd and the New York City subway. Along the way, he shows how each of these "voyages out from himself" has led him to the source of his beginnings as a writer. The Disappointment Artist is a series of windows onto the collisions of art, landscape, and personal history that formed Lethem’s richly imaginative, searingly honest perspective on life. A touching, deeply perceptive portrait of a writer in the making.

Dylan a cinq ans lorsque ses parents s''installent à Brooklyn. Ce sont les seuls Blancs du quartier. Son père, Abraham, un peintre conceptuel, passe ses journées dans son atelier. Sa mère est une gauchiste persuadée qu''il n''y a rien de tel que grandir dans la rue. Dylan apprend peu à peu les règles du quartier. Mais ce petit garçon blond et timide reste isolé parmi les gamins noirs et portoricains. Jusqu''à ce que Mingus s''installe près de chez lui. Elevé par son père, une pop-star oubliée accro à la cocaïne, Mingus est métis. Il prend Dylan sous son aile, le protège, l''initie aux comics, au graffiti, et plus tard au hip-hop, à la soul et la drogue. L''un est blanc, l''autre noir. Tous deux sont seuls dans cette ville dangereuse comme une forêt de conte de fées. Forteresse de solitude est un livre sur l''enfance, le souvenir et la rédemption. C''est aussi une fresque de l''Amérique de la rue, depuis les années 70 où le choix de chaque vêtement, chaque disque, chaque mot est un acte politique dans la guerre larvée pour la conquête du quartier, jusqu''aux années 2000 où plus rien ne compte. Porté par sa vision poétique, Jonathan Lethem passe constamment du réel à l''imaginaire, dans ce livre extraordinaire qui doit autant à Charles Dickens qu''à William Blake.

A boozy ex-military captain trapped in a mysterious vessel searches for his runaway son, an aging superhero settles into academia, and a professional "dystopianist" receives a visit from a suicidal sheep. Men and Cartoons contains eleven fantastical, amusing, and moving stories written in a dizzying array of styles that shows the remarkable range and power of Lethem''s vision. Sometimes firmly grounded in reality, and other times spinning off into utterly original imaginary worlds, this book brings together marvelous characters with incisive social commentary and thought provoking allegories. A visionary and creative collection that only Jonathan Lethem could have produced, the Vintage edition features two stories not published in the hardcover edition, "The Shape We''re In" and "Interview with the Crab.

A New York Times Book Review EDITORS'' CHOICE. From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, comes the vividly told story of Dylan Ebdus growing up white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. In a neighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along with games of stoopball, Dylan has one friend, a black teenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. Through the knitting and unraveling of the boys'' friendship, Lethem creates an overwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race and class, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging, loyalty, and memory. "A tour de force.... Belongs to a venerable New York literary tradition that stretches back through Go Tell It on the Mountain, A Walker in the City, and Call it Sleep." --The New York Times Magazine "One of the richest, messiest, most ambitious, most interesting novels of the year.... Lethem grabs and captures 1970s New York City, and he brings it to a story worth telling." --Time

Unorthodox materials such as over-the-counter remedies, medicinal herbs, prescription pills and psychoactive plants are just some of the materials that make up artist Fred Tomaselli''s collaged paintings. Others include cut-out photographs of flowers, insects and leaves from field guides and seed catalogues that jostle for attention with their carefully-pressed and preserved real-life counterparts. Whole figures crafted from magazine cut-outs of animals and body parts--nightmarish Archimboldo-esque hybrids--present Tomaselli''s intensely personal vision of the universe. Moving between abstractions and figurations, Monsters of Paradise presents 32 visually exuberant works reproduced in glorious color, and provides a comprehensive view of Tomaselli''s work from 1995 to today.

"I envy your first encounter, if that is what it is, withMeeting Evil,one of Berger''s most relentless and ingenious ''contraptions.''"--Jonathan Lethem, from the IntroductionMeeting Eviltells an adrenaline-pumped, genuinely frightening tale of malevolence that swerves swiftly and irrevocably to a catastrophic climax.John Felton meets evil late one Monday morning when the doorbell rings. Standing on the front porch is a stranger. He wears expensive running shoes and a baseball cap and calls himself Richie. He tells John his car has stalled and asks for help. An altercation at the gas station leads to a shocking crime as violence begets violence. At the end of this harrowing day, John returns home to find Richie ensconced in his living room, chatting up his wife. The evil has somehow seeped into his life. Thus begins the transformation of an unremarkable husband and father of two into a desperate man willing to go to any length to protect his family from the darkness that threatens them.This is an extraordinary masterpiece and a chilling portrait of mounting menace played out against an everyday world of domestic routine, personified in a protagonist of basic decency grappling with both the immediate and existential meaning of true evil.

Lionel Essrog a grandi avec ses copains à l''orphelinat de Brooklyn. Devenu adulte, il est embauché par un " privé ", Franck Minna, dont l''agence se livre à de louches activités sous prétexte de déménagements. Les Orphelins de Brooklyn raconte l''histoire des " Minna Boys ", leurs arnaques et leurs combines, le meurtre de leur patron et l''enquête rocambolesque qui s''ensuit. Mais le véritable intérêt de ce livre est ailleurs : en effet, Essrog est affligé d''une maladie rare, le syndrome de Gilles de la Tourette, série de troubles obsessionnels compulsifs (TOC) qui font de sa vie un enfer, et dont le principal symptôme consiste en des éruptions verbales incontrôlées. Prétexte, pour Jonathan Lethem, à d''étincelantes variations langagières sur le thème du roman noir " hard boiled ", revu et corrigé par un disciple de Tex Avery.

It''s here: the third and latest volume in the series that you have come to rely upon for your music-reading fix. The 2002 volume will celebrate the year''s best writing about music and its culture, as selected by Jonathan Lethem, best-selling novelist, music hound, and self-confessed closet rock-writer. With pieces on a dazzling array of topics from more than a hundred sources, the collection brings you remarkable essays by journalists and authors who are as serious about writing as they are about music. It''s required reading for anyone who loves either art. Past contributors have included: David Rakoff Mike Doughty Lorraine Ali Greil Marcus Richard Meltzer Robert Gordon Sarah Vowell Nick Tosches Anthony DeCurtis William Gay Whitney Balliett Lester Bangs Rosanne Cash Susan Orlean Eddie Dean Selwyn Seyfu Hinds Alec Wilkinson David Hajdu

Lethem, author of the bestselling Motherless Brooklyn , returns in concentrated form - packing twice the adventure into one-eighth the pages. This book could be some kind of allegory book, but it might not be an allegory book at all. It involves people and drinking and people looking for a giant eye. It is among the best things Mr. Lethem has written.

Previously published only in a signed, limited edition, "Kafka Americana" has achieved cult status. In an act of literary appropriation, the authors seize a helpless Kafka by the lapels and thrust him into the cultural wreckage of 20th century America.