- Hardcover: 311 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (Sep 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385491832
- ISBN-13: 978-0385491839
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,440,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Petty hoodlum turned owner of a small time detective agency, Frank Minna assembled a team of four orphans and made them his loyal servants: the Minna Men. When Frank is stabbed to death on what was supposed to be a routine job, Lionel, one of the four, is determined to track down Frank's killer and avenge his death. One thing makes this something of a problem--Lionel has Tourette's syndrome, a collection of tics and compulsions which make him constantly break out in nonsense syllables or cause him to touch every object he sees. His advantage is that most people confuse his disability with stupidity; when he gets up a head of steam, the large slow-moving Lionel is extremely formidable. Taking us from a Zen study centre to a dangerous car park on the New England coast, Motherless Brooklyn is at the same time a brilliantly characterised detective novel and an inventive exploration of a particular tone of voice.
"Meanwhile, beneath that frozen shell, a sea of language was reaching full boil. It became harder and harder not to notice that when a television pitchman said 'to last the rest of a lifetime' my brain went 'to rest the lust of a loaf tomb' that when I heard 'Alfred Hitchcock', I silently replied 'Altered House clock' or 'Ilford Hotchkiss'."
What might have been exploitative--the portrayal of Lionel and his compulsions--is attractive, affirming and compassionate. The sense of Brooklyn as a city full of borderlines between communities, the legal and the illegal, life and death, is overwhelming. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Sunday Times
'A detective novel of winning humour and exhilarating originality.'
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
This is the best book I have read this year. Lethem is an excellent storyteller, inventive and unusual in his character depiction and engaging throughout. The dialogue is sharp, witty and perceptive between a collection of orphaned individuals whose universe revolves around the leadership of an exploitative father figure in a shadowy area of Brooklyn. It is part coming of age, part detective story, part sheer inventive storytelling and I liked it immensely.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An Intriguing detective story, where the "detective" is a delinquent member of a gang of toughs, victim of Tourette's Syndrome. The argument is continuous and gripping. The struggle against the syndrome has elements of pathos and humour, and give a uniquely human touch to the sufferer and principal personality.
The story is set in Brooklyn, and gives some insight into the virtues and vices of the lives of the . The author is unknown to me, so when I picked the book up and started reading it, I was pleasantly suprised when I found that, not only is the story good, but it is also well written.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Jonathan Lethem is a true original. His latest, "Motherless Brooklyn" manages to spin a tale of orphan misfits, detectives, gangsters and a main character that suffers from Tourette Syndrome into an impressive, rapid paced melee. The descriptions of the Brooklyn area, the characters and all the necessary sensory perceptions needed come through in snappy prose. Lethem's description of the 'impulses' and 'partly contollable' symptoms of Tourette are dead-on. Never has this reviewer read anything that so accurately captures the essence of Tourette and the personality in a novel. The reader can feel the symptoms of Tourette welling up in themselves as strongly as the character does on the page.
Half detective story and half a case study of a young man with Tourette, Lethem intertwines the two deftly, giving the reader little time to breathe between events.
The detective story may be slightly hackneyed and the closeness of the orphans and thier Fagan-like detective mentor could have been more intimately detailed, but Lionel Essrog and his Tourette's make fantastic fodder. Lethem goes for broke. This novel describes Tourette and real life on the streets like no other author has before.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"Tell your story walking"
A group of teenagers from the local Brooklyn Orphanage find themselves recruited by a local man, Frank Minna, for various jobs to do with his taxi work and moving house business,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Eileen Shaw
Riding the V Train to Zengeance
In this Chandler-inspired tale, small-time crook Frank Minna selects a group of teenage orphans, "Motherless Brooklyn" to be his "men". Read more
Published 2 months ago by Antenna
Edgy. Brilliant.
I came to this a bit late I must admit, the only one to suffer was myself. Oh how I wish I'd read this sooner. It's brilliant. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Verve
Not quite Chandler
It isn't just that critics have seen something Chandleresque in Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, the book itself quotes from the old master ('About the only part of California you... Read more
Published 20 months ago by reader 451
A remarkable insight
Lionel is one of four boys from a Brooklyn orphanage enlisted to help the young Frank Minna, Lionel is then thirteen years old. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2010 by Benjamin
A Tourettian gangster world
Lionel Essog is one of the Minna Men on the edge of the law in modern New York. When their leader Frank Minna is knifed to death Lionel expects to find out whodunnit, 'just like in... Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2009 by Officer Dibble
A tale of two parts
From the simplest perspective, this novel delivers a feeling akin to riding a roller-coaster from the '50s. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2009 by Andrew W
Great hybrid of hard-boiled detective novel with psychological insight
I've read all of Jonathan Lethem's books and enjoyed them all - some more than others. This is in the top bracket - very good. Great plot, good characters, well written. Read more
Published on 14 July 2009 by Jezza
very over rated crime novel
perhaps i expected too much, i dont know, i just found this very slow and very dull. tourettes is an interesting condition, and you know i did learn a lot about it in these pages,... Read more
Published on 7 July 2009 by anonymous
Moving, funny and oddly poetic.
This is a unique and beautiful novel, I would agree with the other reviewers who rate it as Lethem's best. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2008 by N. Adams
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