The incomparable Jonathan Lethem returns with nine stories that demonstrate his mastery of the short form.
Jonathan Lethem's third collection of stories uncovers a father's nervous breakdown at SeaWorld in "Pending Vegan"; a foundling child rescued from the woods during a blizzard in "Traveler Home"; a political prisoner in a hole in a Brooklyn street in "Procedure in Plain Air"; and a crumbling, haunted "blog" on a seaside cliff in "The Dreaming Jaw, The Salivating Ear." Each of these locates itself in Lethem-land, which can be discovered only by visiting. As in his celebrated novels, Lethem finds the uncanny lurking in the mundane, the irrational self-defeat seeping through our upstanding pursuits, and the tragic undertow of the absurd world(s) in which we live.
Devoted fans of Lethem will recognize familiar themes: the anxiety of influence taken to reductio ad absurdum in "The King of Sentences"; a hapless, horny outsider summoning bravado in "The Porn Critic"; characters from forgotten comics stranded on a desert island in "Their Back Pages." As always in Lethem, humor and poignancy work in harmony, humans strive desperately for connection, words find themselves misaligned to deeds, and the sentences are glorious.
Industry Reviews
"Lethem is, of course, a king of sentences.... Lethem works in an interesting literary space between realism and absurdism, modernism and postmodernism, satire and a particular brand of DeLillo-inspired darkness.... His talent is large and, as these stories demonstrate, his eye is as sharp as ever."
- New York Times Book Review
Jonathan Lethem s imagination seemingly knows no bounds....Comparisons might be drawn to writers ranging from Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami to Margaret Atwood and J.D. Salinger.
-- Chicago Tribune
"Rewards await the reader who commits to this slim volume.... Lucky Alan is a beguiling addition to a shelf full of uniquely inventive books by a master of genres with a legitimate claim to the much-contested throne."
-- The Miami Herald
[T]ypically odd, funny and easy to love . [A] pleasing schizophrenia and a remarkable variety in affect and ambition within one collection.
-- LA Times
[A] great introduction to the sometimes heartbreaking, often surreal world of Jonathan Lethem "
-- NPR
"Mr. Lethem is a a nimble and resourceful writer."
-- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
" "Lethem is, of course, a king of sentences.... Lethem works in an interesting literary space between realism and absurdism, modernism and postmodernism, satire and a particular brand of DeLillo-inspired darkness.... His talent is large and, as these stories demonstrate, his eye is as sharp as ever."
- "New York Times Book Review"
Jonathan Lethem s imagination seemingly knows no bounds....Comparisons might be drawn to writers ranging from Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami to Margaret Atwood and J.D. Salinger.
"-- Chicago Tribune"
"Rewards await the reader who commits to this slim volume.... "Lucky Alan "is a beguiling addition to a shelf full of uniquely inventive books by a master of genres with a legitimate claim to the much-contested throne."
-- "The Miami Herald"
[T]ypically odd, funny and easy to love . [A] pleasing schizophrenia and a remarkable variety in affect and ambition within one collection.
--" LA Times"
[A] great introduction to the sometimes heartbreaking, often surreal world of Jonathan Lethem "
-- NPR
"Mr. Lethem is a a nimble and resourceful writer."
-- Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times ""
