Javaczuk found a copy of this at a LFL in Fairmount, that was a bit stained and rough around the edges edges. We got this copy a little later at Philly AIDs Thrift had a cleaner copy, which we got. First copy was wild released.
This was an interesting book, set in one of my favorite city places. It's a nod to noir, detective stories, mysteries, and quirky heroes (main character is a "detective" who has Tourettes syndrome. The author does a great job of demonstrating and explaining the condition.) It's another slice of life, but one that is easily pictured thanks to the writing of Jonathan Lethem. ( )

What is it about Brooklyn? [b:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn|14891|A Tree Grows in Brooklyn|Betty Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327883484s/14891.jpg|833257]. Joe Pitt in [b:Half the Blood of Brooklyn|1061262|Half the Blood of Brooklyn (Joe Pitt, #3)|Charlie Huston|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389245065s/1061262.jpg|2564066]. [b:Last Exit to Brooklyn|50275|Last Exit to Brooklyn|Hubert Selby Jr.|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1362815242s/50275.jpg|543352]. Not to mention a hundred different movies. Something there must spark the imagination, get at the essence of life.

Motherless Brooklyn is one of the most solidly crafted books I've read this year. Since it's the end of February that may not sound like much, so I'll throw in December and November of 2017 as well. Really, it was just so pleasant to trust in Lethem, with page after page doing fascinating things. I was distrustful at first, I admit; the protagonist has a serious case of Tourette's Syndrome whiched seemed like an Authorial Big Idea that could go awfully wrong. But it doesn't. It's handled with aplomb, with sensitivity, with humor; with an even hand that gives expression to the experience.

"My mouth won’t quit, though mostly I whisper or subvocalize like I’m reading aloud, my Adam’s apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, the noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks empty of breath and tone."

But a man with Tourette's is not really what this is about, not really. This is a homicide, a mystery which our protagonist, Lionel, feels compelled to solve. Since his teens, Lionel has worked as a small-time muscle for mentor and eventual friend Frank Minna. Lionel and Gerald are supposed to be back-up support for Frank at a meeting. Things go terribly wrong, and the relationships within Minna's Men become fragile and uncertain.

"Together [the streets] made a crisscrossed game board of Frank Minna’s alliances and enmities, and me and Gil Coney and the other Agency Men were the markers—like Monopoly pieces, I sometimes thought, tin automobiles or terriers (not top hats, surely)—to be moved around that game board. Here on the Upper East Side we were off our customary map, Automobile and Terrier in Candyland—or maybe in the study with Colonel Mustard."

Lionel is a likable hero, Tourette's and all, driven to explain and organize around him. He's an observant and humorous narrator, and if he is occasionally led around by his id, he's aware enough to understand it. Communication is, of course, a challenge for Lionel. I was afraid it would always be played for laughs, or worse yet, for pity, but Lethem has a nice balance between the internal thoughts and the external expression that allows for the occasional laughs with him instead of at him.

"My jaw worked, chewing the words back down, keeping silent. Gilbert’s hands gripped the wheel, mine drummed quietly in my lap, tiny hummingbird motions. This is what passed for cool around here."

I went in expecting a mystery, and Lethem delivers, certainly. But wrapped up in the mystery is a solid, thoughtful portrayal of man who was given the closest thing to family and companionship he ever knew by a low-level mobster. The mobster, in turn, gets much of his own portrayal, at least from Lionel's viewpoint. It ends up being a bit of a bromance, or a non-jerk example of the 'dick-fic' genre (see The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death). At one point, I realized with some surprised that I was reading a solid literary-fiction kind of book, with beautiful writing and human drama, wrapped up in a mystery.

"The ashtray on the counter was full of cigarette butts that had been in Minna’s fingers, the telephone log full of his handwriting from earlier in the day. The sandwich on top of the fridge wore his bite marks. We were all four of us an arrangement around a missing centerpiece, as incoherent as a verbless sentence."

Unlike mystery-thrillers, it isn't a particularly teeth-clenching, anxiety-producing kind of book (except, perhaps, on behalf of Lionel) that requires one to stay up late to read 'one more page.' Yet there's something quite solid about it, curious, moving, wry and intriguing that let me immerse myself whenever I picked it up. I feel like there's also solid re-read potential here. In fact, I think I will. Might even be worth adding to my own library. Reminds me of Sara Gran's [b:Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead|9231999|Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead|Sara Gran|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312909281s/9231999.jpg|14112168], and that's high praise indeed. I'll have to check out [b:The Fortress of Solitude|9799|The Fortress of Solitude|Jonathan Lethem|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1418677318s/9799.jpg|1971520], also by Letham, when I can handle some straight-up lit-fic.

Four and a half--EatmeBailey--tics, rounding up ( )

A very inventive and touching story with unforgettable characters. I really enjoyed reading it, although I wished I'd had a little more experience with traditional hard boiled detective stories, as I could pick up hints that there were interesting plays on the genre going on that probably work even better if you've read a bit more Raymond Chandler. Still, a great read all the way through. ( )

Sort of a cross between Sam spade , detective searching for partners killer, and The Godfather, family allegiances mired in crime. The mysterious femme fatale, the evil corporation , the worry about who can be trusted, all the usual noir type scenarios, with the interesting addition of the protagonist having to deal with his Tourettic impulses on top of everything else. ( )

A mystery with no mothers. ( )

Noir with a case of Tourette’s is the shape of Motherless Brooklyn in this novel that blends elements of detective fiction with deep character exploration and social commentary. It’s clever and compelling. The Tourette’s isn’t a gimmick, rather the central aspect of Lionel’s character and the lens in which he views the world. Lethem portrays Lionel’s struggles, highlighting his intelligence, determination and wit while exploring themes of identity, belonging and the search for meaning in a chaotic world. Motherless Brooklyn will linger in your mind long after you turn the last page. ( )

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem was first published in 1999. The story is told by Lionel Essrog who considers himself a private investigator. Lionel has Tourette’s Syndrome, a disorder marked by tics, both physical and vocal. He is one of a group of young men who grew up in a local orphanage and as boys, the four of them were taken under the wing of Frank Minna, a small time hood who sometimes calls his business a detective agency and sometimes a transportation company. Lionel and the other boys call themselves the Minna Men, and look up to Frank as a strong father figure. Lionel is devastated when Frank is murdered and vows to hunt down the killer.

While this is not a classic detective story, it is still a story about crime, pursuit and retribution told by a unique voice. Lionel’s Tourette’s shapes the story with his compulsive behavior and strange wording that he cannot control. He taps, grabs, and pats people and things, he needs to ensure that life revolves around certain numbers and his brain seizes on words and spits out vulgar variations.

I found this to be a fantastic yet bittersweet story. Although compulsive and twitchy, Lionel is a both a likeable and sympathetic character. The author has created a darkly poetic, well crafted yet absurd story whose word play enhances the lonely life the book is illuminating. ( )

Inside a well-paced, personal mystery set in the streets of Brooklyn, Lethem portrays the mind and voice of a Tourette's sufferer so compellingly, so logically, that I came out wondering if everyone else wasn't wasting their speech. Delightful for anyone obsessed with language, and a good story in and of itself. ( )

Lousy detective novel.

One of the benchmarks of good storytelling is consistency across genres, much as it is with acting or other creative career paths. Lethem proves his ability while throwing in a unique character whose Touret tics in many cases are hysterical, yet highly appropriate. Driven by a theme focused on friendship and honor, we follow Lionel from his high school days where he's taken under the wing of a mentor who lovingly refers to him as "Freakshow". But Lionel's heart is big, his loyalty unmatched and once the inciting incident occurs midway through, he uncovers purpose. Having recently finished "Fortress of Solitude" which isn't a crime/mystery/comedy like this one, I'm a fan of Lethem and will eagerly read others he's written. Highly recommended for those who focus on the craft of storytelling rather than a genre. ( )

Woven by a true master! I liked the way that the author treated Lionel. It made me really like the guy. The mystery was superb and although it is set in old Brooklyn, it fits Washington as well. ( )

I liked the characters better than the mystery. Not that impressed by the reveal. But a very enjoyable read and good writing. ( )

I was writing a review of this, and a glitch effed it up and lost it. It's not worth it to me to write this whole review again.
What I'll say is that this book was worth to me was that it brought awareness to Tourette's Syndrome. The protagonist had Tourette's Syndrome and as the reader can imagine it controls his whole life.
I expected the author to say something in the afterword about how he knew what it was like to have Tourette's, but he didn't. He just wrote a list of names. So I don't know if the author had Tourette's Syndrome, or if someone in his family had it, or a friend of his, or he researched it, etc. ( )

Ein Lethem eben.
Man bekommt sofort Lust sich mit Google Maps an die Schauplätze des Romans in Brooklyn und Maine hinzunavi- und imaginieren.
Der Plot: Waisenkind mit Tourette-Syndrom deckt die Hintergründe des Mordes an seinem Arbeitgeber und Vaterfigur auf. ( )

Great read, with language that went spinning through my head for days. Jonathan Lethem has a gift for patterning and phrase. I found some parts of the plot less than convincing, but I was happy to be along for the ride. ( )

Loved it. The voice is unique, funny and tragic, and now I'm hoping the author's other books are as enjoyable. ( )

Noir with a twist. The book worked for me until it didn't. After awhile the tic-ing and the Tourette's interfered with my ability to maintain interest in the story. ( )

An enjoyable take on the hardboiled mystery - familiar enough to feel cozy, but strange enough to feel new. The Tourette's characterizations triggered some of my own tics while reading. ( )

The thing this book does beautifully is to make you feel like you've inhabited a different sort of mind. It's sort of a detective story, but the real appeal is in how you experience the view from behind the eyes of a narrator whose internal (and external) mono/dialogue is so very different from your own. It's lyrical and lovely and playful and sometimes a little heartbreaking. Lethem here takes a familiar genre -- the detective story -- and enlivens it by tweaking the style and replacing (self-consciously) the verbal tics of that genre with the verbal tics of the unusual narrator. I enjoyed this one a lot. It's the third Lethem book I've read, and I figure he's three for three so far. ( )

Really clever writing, no idea how accurate a depiction of tourettes sufferer this is but the protagonist is instantly sympathetic and intriguing which keeps you reading. That and the terrible jokes. ( )

Some books are more about voice than plot. That is the case with Motherless Brooklyn. And for that reason, I feel fortunate to have listened to the audiobook version, which was phenomenally narrated by Geoffrey Cantor with an amazing variety of voices that made each character distinct--but most of all made the Tourette's Syndrome-inflicted narrator a unique, believable voice at the center of a complex web of loyalties and betrayals involving a small time Brooklyn hood, his brother, his wife, some doormen, an all-night Korean convenience store, a Zendo, a huge assassin, Japanese businessmen/monks--well, you get the idea. As in the other book I read by Lethem, he is never short of ideas or imagination. The noir-ish aspects are a bit too self-conscious, as if he doesn't want them to escape the notice of a reader not familiar with the genre. And the story goes on a bit too long, but thanks to the superb narration, it was a rewarding listen. ( )

Some books are more about voice than plot. That is the case with Motherless Brooklyn. And for that reason, I feel fortunate to have listened to the audiobook version, which was phenomenally narrated by Geoffrey Cantor with an amazing variety of voices that made each character distinct--but most of all made the Tourette's Syndrome-inflicted narrator a unique, believable voice at the center of a complex web of loyalties and betrayals involving a small time Brooklyn hood, his brother, his wife, some doormen, an all-night Korean convenience store, a Zendo, a huge assassin, Japanese businessmen/monks--well, you get the idea. As in the other book I read by Lethem, he is never short of ideas or imagination. The noir-ish aspects are a bit too self-conscious, as if he doesn't want them to escape the notice of a reader not familiar with the genre. And the story goes on a bit too long, but thanks to the superb narration, it was a rewarding listen. ( )

The heartbreaking part was they just wanted someone to trust ( )

> Have you noticed yet that I relate everything to my Tourette's? Yup, you guessed it, it's a tic. Counting is a symptom, but counting symptoms is also a symptom, a tic plus ultra. I've got meta-Tourette's.

> I might have stopped then. I believed the giant was unconscious under the air bag. He was at least silent and still, not firing his gun, not struggling to free himself. But I felt the wild call of symmetry: His car ought to be crumpled on both sides. I needed to maul both of the Contour's shoulders. I rolled forward and into position, then backed and crashed against his car once more, wrecking it on the passenger side as I had on the driver's. It’s a Tourette's thing—you wouldn't understand. ( )

An average, at times slow paced detective noir given life by it's narrator and its portrayal of Brooklyn. Lionel is an orphan from Brooklyn who suffers from Tourette's syndrome. The narrative is driven by his various tics, verbal and non-verbal, which is the main source of the dark humour, supplemented by the descriptions of the streets of Brooklyn. I have no idea if this depiction of tourette's has any relation to the reality so am cautious about this aspect, but in itself, it's great fun. May 2020. ( )