The Fortress of Solitude (Paperback)

Though they admire Spiderman, they do not like Superman, whom they consider a "flattened reality," an ineffective presence living in his "Fortress of Solitude," much like Dylan's artist father living in his studio. When a homeless man in the neighborhood, jumps from a three-story building and injures himself in an attempt to fly like Superman, Dylan begins to think about Superman as a real, not comic book character, actually emulating him in real life. Descriptions of the neighborhood, the attempts at gentrification, the inadequate public school system, the drug scene, the racial conflicts, and eventually even the prison system all add depth and color to the novel, and Lethem expands this scope even further by presenting a detailed view of pop culture. His unique images are a constant source of surprise and delight.

The novel is a huge and imaginative recreation of growing up in the city in the '70's, but it is not seamless. Dylan's early life is traumatic and is drawn very realistically, so the reader is startled when, at the relatively mature age of thirteen, Dylan becomes obsessed with Superman and wants to emulate him, and when the author segues into the magic realism of flight shortly thereafter, the reader is unprepared for the contrast with the earlier naturalism of the novel. Dylan's lack of curiosity about what happens to Mingus after a horrifying incident at age fourteen leaves the reader wondering about the depth of his feelings, and occasionally the mini-essays, which give color and life to the neighborhood, act as a brake on the action. Dylan as an adult is not very interesting, and Mingus becomes almost a footnote. Still the novel adds a new dimension to Lethem's rapidly growing portfolio of outstanding novels and enhances his reputation as one of America's most exciting young novelists. Mary Whipple

Most of the novel takes place in 1970's Brooklyn and the story centers on Dylan Ebdus, a young white boy living in a neighborhood of Brooklyn that is predominately black. Later, when he is in high school it is said that he is one of only three white boys in the entire school. Yes, race plays a factor in this book. Dylan is a smaller kid, weak, but he makes a friend in Mingus Rude, a black kid who is new to the neighborhood. Unlike Dylan, Mingus immediately fits in and finds a place in the neighborhood. Nobody messes with him. Mingus belongs. Dylan and Mingus have one friendship when they are alone and at each other's homes, and another type when they are on the street. This works for Dylan. He takes what he can get and he knows that his friendship is the true friendship.

Lethem gives us the rhythm of the street and the race relations in that Brooklyn neighborhood. It is painful for Dylan, but he is able to get by. What comes next almost seems like a gimmick, but Lethem did not push it down our throat so it felt believable. Mingus and Dylan are big into comic books and think and talk about superheroes and the powers they have. Dylan meets a man who was trying unsuccessfully to fly. At first this seems like an event unconnected to anything else, but it turns out to have a deeper connection to the story. Sometime later Dylan and Mingus are part of their own two person tagging crew (graffiti) and they tag a homless man who they think is already dead. At some point later he turns out to be alive and Dylan acquires a ring from the man. This ring has "super" powers. Dylan and Mingus attempt to be superheroes, but nothing goes quite according to plan and the ring is put to the side for months and years at a time.

As much as the title alludes to Superman comics and that there is a strong comic book theme running through the novel, not to mention the ring, this is a very down to earth novel that just feels real. Lethem has fashioned the world of the Brooklyn neighborhood and of Dylan's childhood absolutely perfectly. Lethem is a talented author who just keeps getting better and better.

-Joe Sherry

The real star of this book is not Dylan Ebdus or Mingus Rude but the world that they inhabit. Dean Street in the Seventies is a world teetering in the edge – drugs are rife, the yuppies are moving in, gang life proliferates, and a sense of economic decline permeates the area. To is credit, Lethem’s descriptions of Dean Street are good – the oil stained body shops and forlorn graffitied warehouses, the sprays of broken glass on the side walks, the Puerto Ricans, the images of the dilapidated brownstones, and the liquor stores. This, after all, is the Seventies and Lethem, to his credit infuses his narrative with references to pop culture – Logan’s Run, Star Trek, disco hits, cocaine, and the grooviest pop groups. Lethem periodically intersperses the narrative with pop songs of the period, as the story gradually moves forward into the 80’s and 90’s.

The main problem that I found with this novel is that Lethem never really allows us access to the main characters’ inner thoughts. We have some wonderful descriptions of time and place – but I never got the sense that the author was privileging us to what Mingus, Dylan and Arthur were actually thinking, and this is also true of many of the secondary characters. The reader is constantly the observer on in this novel, always on the outside and at all times looking in. On the positive side, Lethem has a good ear for recreating natural conversation and portrays rather adroitly the particular black inflections of the period. Bu generally though, I found this novel to be a big disappointment, an over the top, shoddy, and slapdash mess. Fortress of Solitude is all over the place, which is a pity, because Lethem has much passion and zeal as a writer.

Michael