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Book Reviewed by:If Jonathan Lethem's novels were food they would pile the pounds on those who consume them, not from empty calories but from a rich feast of extravagant fare, like lobster in drawn butter or Eggs Benedict swimming in creamy hollandaise. It invariably takes me a long time to read his books because every page bursts with lush language. Lethem uses words and tosses reality around with awe-inspiring creativity. With the possible exception of Motherless Brooklyn (which I loved and re-read to savor the sheer sumptuousness of its prose) Chronic City is his best yet.
It would be easy to assume that former child star Chase Insteadman is the main character here just because he narrates the story. On the contrary, I think the protagonist is Manhattan, the eponymous Chronic City. Indeed, for all the narrative's purposes, nothing exists outside the island's perimeter. Not a single character utters the name of a locale other than those within Manhattan's borders. Even when speaking about Chase's space-quarantined fiancée, Janice Trumbull, they never say she is making America proud. They say instead that she is making Manhattan proud. The only references to locations outside New York City are oblique allusions to nationality, as in, Chinese or Russian, etc. As Perkus says, "No body - that's no body - really believes in the news beyond the boundaries of their neighborhood or pocket universe. Manhattan is one of those, you know, a pocket universe."
The focus of the novel shifts from Insteadman's nebulous existence to a crazy plot in which he, his loony friend Perkus Tooth, Perkus's somewhat less loony friend Oona Laszlo and even New York's mayor and his minion Richard Abneg become instruments in the City's evolution. The net result is that the city's destiny rests in the slippery, drug-addled hands of this ragtag group, none of whom have much of a life - or sense of the real world.
In Lethem's Manhattan people can easily deny unpleasant realities by, for example, opting to read the "war free" edition of the New York Times. Chase is described as the ultimate amnesiac American who, "never can imagine anything actually ever happened before [he] wandered along." He lives in a town that personifies the A-type personality, but he doesn't work. He aspires to nothing. Neither do Perkus, who lives "as much inside a conundrum" as he does a city, or Oona, a ghostwriter who prefers not to know her subjects. And yet they all travel in circles frighteningly close to the wealthy and powerful people who make decisions about the city's welfare. Scary, huh?
This review was originally published in October 2009, and has been updated for the
August 2010 paperback release.
Click here to go to this issue.
Everyone knows New York! Even if you've never visited you've probably read about it in books such as Jonathan Letham's (which are all set in the City). If you haven't read about it, the chances are that one of the countless TV shows such as NYPD Blue, Friends, and Sex and the City has introduced you to a variety of its streets, apartment buildings, alleys and restaurants. Even if you missed these, you've probably seen it portrayed in some of the hundreds of movies filmed there, from classics such as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Barefoot in the Park to more recent films such as the Spiderman movies. At the very least, the chances are you've had your present and future financial status affected by Wall Street!
There is so much more to be known about NYC than can be found by visiting the main tourist attractions, although they are certainly as good a place as any to start. For example, many tourists will visit President Ulysses S Grant's Tomb, which is also the location of one of the City's most popular riddles (made famous by Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life quiz), "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb"; The correct answer is, of course, no one - Grant and his wife are entombed, not buried.
Perhaps you already knew that Grant's resting place is the largest tomb in New York, in fact the largest tomb in the entire USA; but did you know that the burial plot of an 18th Century tot on Riverside Drive has the distinction of being the smallest cemetery in Manhattan?
Like countless other cities across America, New York's personality is built upon generations of forgotten landmarks. For example, one block from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is a tiny, little-known street called Gold Street; not named for its location close to the Fed but for the golden fields of corn that once grew on the now leveled Golden Hill. A visit to forgotten-ny.com gives a glimpse of a town whose personality even many Manhattanites wouldn't recognize; and a visit to BookBrowse's New York reading list (one of over 100 themed reading lists available to members) will uncover over a hundred exceptional books set in the State of New York, most of them in New York City - past, present, and even future.
If you'd like to introduce your children to the wonders of Manhattan, we recommend The Night Tourist which explores the City both above and below ground, often referencing Viele's 1874 map of Manhattan. And if you've ever wondered what Manhattan was like before it was a city, you can travel back in time with The Manhatta Project for a glimpse of the island in its natural state.
This review was originally published in October 2009, and has been updated for the
August 2010 paperback release.
Click here to go to this issue.
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BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
