A complusively readable riff on the classic detective novel from America’s most inventive novelistWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book“Utterly original and deeply moving.” —EsquireBrooklyn’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 … 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.
Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original, captivating homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.
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Love all his work
The most interesting thing about the book was the protagonist with Tourette’s Syndrome. The story was complex and interesting but somehow told rather than shown. More dialogue would have moved the action along faster.
I had to work at it, but at the end, I was glad I stuck with it. It was very informative of tourettes syndrome. If he does not actually have the problem, the author is the world’s best researcher.
I loved “Motherless Brooklyn” with its protagonist with Tourette’s Sydrome. I immediately bought Lethem’s second book (“Chronic City”) and hated it. Go figure.