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"Tell your story walking." St. Vincent's Home for Boys, Brooklyn, early 1970s. For Lionel Essrog, a.k.a. The Human Freakshow, a victim of Tourette's syndrome (an uncontrollable urge to shout out nonsense, touch every surface in reach, rearrange objects), Frank Minna is a savior. A local tough guy and fixer, Minna shows up to take Lionel and three of his fellow orphans on mysterious errands: they empty a store of stereos as the owner watches; destroy a small amusement park; visit old Italian men. The four grow up to be the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective agency-cum-limo service, and their days and nights revolve around Frank, the prince of Brooklyn, who glides through life on street smarts, attitude, and secret knowledge. Then one dreadful night, Frank is knifed and thrown into a Dumpster, and Lionel must become a real detective. As Lionel struggles to find Frank's killer--without letting his Tourette's get in the way--he's forced to delve into the complex, shadowy web of relationships, threats, and favors that make up the Brooklyn world he thought he knew so well. No one--not Frank, not Frank's bitter wife, Julia, not the other Minna Men--is who they seem. Not even The Human Freakshow. All of the Lethem touches that have thrilled critics are here--crackling dialogue, sly humor, dizzying plot twists--but they're secondary to wonderfully full, tragic, funny characterizations, and a dazzling evocation of place. Indeed, Brooklyn--with its charming folkways and language, its unique style of bad-guy swagger and sentimentality--becomes itself a major character. Motherless Brooklynis a bravura performance: funny, tense, touching, extravagant. This novel signals the coming of age of a major American writer.

Product Identifiers

PublisherDoubleday Religious Publishing Group, T.H.E.

ISBN-100385491832

ISBN-139780385491839

eBay Product ID (ePID)622662

Product Key Features

Book TitleMotherless Brooklyn

TopicLiterary, Mystery & Detective / General, Mystery & Detective / Private Investigators

Publication Year1999

LanguageEnglish

GenreFiction

AuthorJonathan Lethem

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.2in.

Item Length9.6in.

Item Width6.5in.

Item Weight20.1 Oz

Additional Product Features

LCCN99-018194

Intended AudienceTrade

ReviewsPraise for Jonathan Lethem: "Jonathan Lethem's is a fresh, brazen voice. As funny as he is paranoid, Lethem loves to cross-wire popular genres and watch the sparks fly. And Lethem has talent to burn, an impression reinforced by his rapid pace of production and the snappiness of his prose. Lethem is opening up blue sky for American fiction." --The Voice Literary Supplement "One of our most inventive, stylish and sensuous writers." --Entertainment Weekly "One of the most original voices among younger American novelists." --Newsday "A young novelist worth watching." --Washington Post "Audaciously assured." --Newsweek "Hugely ambitious." --USA Today "A wunderkind who in a scant five years has produced five aggressively original works of fiction--One waits eagerly to learn where Lethem will take us next." --Kirkus Reviews

Dewey Edition22

Dewey Decimal813.5/4

Lc Classification NumberPs3562.E8544m68 1999

Number of Pages320 Pages