Ordinarily, I really dig Lethem’s work, and by all accounts, this is a great book, but I couldn’t get engaged in the story at all.

I was hooked as soon as soon as Dylan gets his bike stolen. How Lethem captured what life is like as a child - the secret worlds, the pure terror and confusion that’s there too much - wonderful. Of course totally fascinating to see this unfold in Brooklyn. Brilliant writing.

The second and third parts of the book were maybe not necessary. He acknowledges it himself in the staged movie pitching scene—there’s no ending, it just goes on and on. Would’ve been better to end leaving the haze of childhood.

When I read this book it reminded me of some of my other favourite modern American novels like The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay or The Brothers K, but it always came up a little short. That’s not necessarily condemnation, as those two books are simply brilliant, but I think Jonathan Lethem allows himself to be a little more self-indulgent than those other authors, and so the book kind of settles in places you might want it to soar in. The story of Dylan Ebdis’s journey, from his beginnings as a young white boy in a predominantly black neighborhood to his self-imposed exile and return later in life, is interesting and full of characters you understand and pop culture references you either get or don’t, and Lethem doesn’t really care which: he gets them, and they’re important to his story. Personally, I liked the book: I thought it was well-written, heartfelt, and successful in hitting a lot of difficult thematic notes. I just felt that there was a little too much weighing it down; with a little less baggage it could have really soared, kind of like Ebdis himself.

It took me forever to get through this book. It’s odd, because I loved Motherless Brooklyn, but I just couldn’t get under the skin of this one. It’s pretty hardcore about music and being a boy and being and not being black, and aside from one magical period in the middle, something just didn’t click for me. That said, I can see how this could be important in a modern urban canon, so don’t write it off on my say-so.

I don’t know, I just didn’t enjoy this a lot. I picked it up because I loved the essays and stories I’d read by Lethem in various magazines. I admire its scope/ambition, but ultimately I found the writing style somewhat exhausting. I found myself caring a little about the characters but not a lot.

As a side note, I thought that when the main character (Dylan Ebdus) was narrating, it was actually the voice of Lethem rather than the character. Cuz we hadn’t been presented with any information indicating that the character would know some of the historical and pop-culture references he supposedly thinks. Just my opinion, of course!

This book wowed me on so many levels: the research, the character development, the way the plot weaved in and out of itself, branched out but kept coming back to the same themes… much like life, only Lethem finds ways to pause life, look down into it and examine it in ways we can’t do on a day-to-day basis. I also loved the way he made Brooklyn come alive. Dean Street becomes a living, breathing entity, the seasons its moods, its inhabitants like phases of our own lives, only here for a while but never completely gone from you when they depart. Outstanding novel, I have no complaints (okay, the switch from third to first person in Prisonaires threw me for a loop, but still) and would recommend it to anyone.