Quite a step down from Lethem’s spectacular Fortress of Solitude. I suppose it’s a novel about the lives and loves of an ultra-indie band in L.A. But there’s also some bizarre installation art an a kidnapped kangaroo. The farce feels forced, and characters’ attraction to each other should be motivated by something more convincing than the narrator’s say-so.
Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn is among my all-time favorite contemporary novels — in no small part because I have Tourette’s and used to live in the neighborhood where that novel is set. As it happens, “You Don’t Love Me Yet” by the Vulgar Boatmen, is one of my all-time favorite indie rock songs.
How disappointing to hear that a novel combining these two favorites should not be great. I’ll likely read it anyway. But first I am salivating over the prospect of Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union.