Motherless Brooklyn
Ratings39
Average rating3.8
From Amazon: 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.
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Sure, why not? Completely works as both pure noir and a modern-day recontextualisation of the same. And it sticks the landing, and sometimes even otherwise-great detective novels can't quite manage that.
I enjoyed this character-driven thriller so much.
The mystery itself was nothing special; crooks being crooks to each other.
But Lionel Essog's narration, watching him work things out, tell us his story, and struggle with his condition very compelling.
It was something to see the way other characters reacted to his moments, his quirks and outburst. Most people are annoyed or repulsed. It was odd how few people had any empathy. I know Brooklyn's a tough place, but damn, I do live in Queens. His issues in participating in the accepted way in most social interactions caused other people to underestimate.
He was a very intelligent and thoughtful character.
I didn't like this one as much as Gun with Occasional Music, and plot-wise it's a two-star, I think, but there are moments of genius that bump it way up, like the wonderful sex scene involving a curious woman and her tourette's-having partner, who is mirroring her hands on his body as a tic, but also as a loving touch. Lethem, of course, describes it better than I can.
