- Paperback: 560 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (6 Jan 2011)
- ISBN-10: 0571235689
- ISBN-13: 978-0571235681
- Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,817,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Chronic City
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Product Description
Review
"Astonishing....Knowing and exuberant, with beautiful drunken sentences that somehow manage to walk a straight line.....Turbocharged....Intricate and seamless....A dancing showgirl of a novel, yet beneath the gaudy makeup it's also the girl next door: a traditional bildungsroman with a strong moral compass."--"New York Times Book Review"
""Chronic City" is a feverish portrait of the anxiety and isolation of modern Manhattan, full of dark humor and dazzling writing....proves both funny and frightening."--"Entertainment Weekly
"
"Exuberant literary revving.....Lethem's vision of New York can approach the Swiftian. It is impressively observant in its detail and scourging in its mocking satire. There are any number of wicked portraits....His comments on New York life are often achingly exact....So pungent and imaginative"--"The Boston Globe"
"Ingenious and unsettling...Lethem pulls everything together in a stunning critique of our perceptions of reality and our preco
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
A searing and hugely imaginative portrayal of Manhattan-ites wrapped up in their own delusions, desires and lies.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Seriously, when you are this skilled a writer, when you know darn well how to handle plot to greatest effect - think: Motherless Brooklyn; then why wouldn't you write a novel that isn't so much `plotless' but rather: plot free? This guy is a literary virtuoso. Skilled, ambitious, in need of further challenge and change. Though this isn't my favourite of Lethem' s works, I have to say, I take my hat off to him, it's a success, it's the work of a great wordsmith - and on that level I enjoyed it immensely. As it says in the blurb, `it's unique' - and I don't believe that's a euphemism for 'not that great', but more of the `hey, here's a great writer that isn't jaded, isn't complacent, isn't trawling out the same old, same old' - so let's applaud this man for that. Take it on its on terms, plot free (though not entirely), and heavy on great writing. For me, that's enough.
This is my favourite of Lethem's: Motherless Brooklyn
I also recommend this one by Jayne Joso: Soothing Music for Stray Cats
This is my favourite of Lethem's: Motherless Brooklyn
I also recommend this one by Jayne Joso: Soothing Music for Stray Cats
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lethem is a master craftsman, and I read every paragraph as if I were listening to my favourite bands playing their most heavenly riffs and choruses. It was such bliss. I am going to reread this book again and again.
So taken am I with this writer, I have bought several more of his books and look forward to reading them all.
So taken am I with this writer, I have bought several more of his books and look forward to reading them all.
Format:Paperback
Maybe I was expecting too much from this book based on the cover blurbs but I was bored. Characters I couldn't care less about. Labouring plot. I used to live in Manhattan and I do recognise some of the satire in this book, and I did finish it, but don't recommend it.
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promising but abandoned
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