Lionel Essrog, a.k.a. the Human Freakshow, is a victim of Tourette's syndrome (an uncontrollable urge to shout out nonsense, touch every surface in reach, rearrange objects). Local tough guy Frank Minna hires the adolescent Lionel and three other orphans from St Vincent's Home for Boys and grooms them to become the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective-agency-cum-limoservice. Then one terrible day Frank is murdered, and Lionel must become a real detective. With crackling dialogue, a dazzling evocation of place, and a plot which mimics Tourette's itself in its freshness and capacity to shock, Motherless Brooklyn is a bravura performance: funny, tense, touching, and extravagant.
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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.
Review
'A detective novel of winning humour and exhilarating originality.' -- Sunday Times
'A love song to [Lethem's] native Brooklyn and full of sparkling dialogue and plot twists - a fascinating adventure.' -- Guardian
'Terrific.' -- Time Out
'A love song to [Lethem's] native Brooklyn and full of sparkling dialogue and plot twists - a fascinating adventure.' -- Guardian
'Terrific.' -- Time Out
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
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.
8 of 9 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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
inventive and creative literary text
Lionel Essrog is part of a detective agency or maybe part of a group serving the needs of a couple of elderly mafiosi, along with three other orphans from Brooklyn (hence... Read more
Published 21 days ago by William Jordan
5.0 out of 5 stars
...just superb
This is the third copy of this book I have owned. I keep lending it to people and then not getting it back - easy to see why. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bill P
4.0 out of 5 stars
"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 12 months ago by Eileen Shaw
4.0 out of 5 stars
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 13 months ago by Antenna
5.0 out of 5 stars
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 on 4 Feb 2011 by Verve
3.0 out of 5 stars
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 on 27 Sep 2010 by reader 451
5.0 out of 5 stars
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
4.0 out of 5 stars
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
3.0 out of 5 stars
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
5.0 out of 5 stars
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
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