Month: November 2015

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

Posted November 12, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Crime / 0 Comments

Title: Motherless Brooklyn (Goodreads)
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Published: Vintage, 1999
Pages: 311
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Frank Minna is a neighbourhood owner of a seedy detective agency, or he was until he was found stabbed to death. Lionel, along with Tony, Danny and Gilbert worked for Frank and were often collectively known as Minna Men. The group grow up together in St. Vincent’s Home for Boys and owe a lot to this small time mobster turned private eye. Lionel is determined to find out what happened by Frank.

This is my first Jonathan Lethem novel and I have been keen to read him for a long time. What I heard about Lethem is his ability to combine genre fiction and explore themes in an interesting way. Motherless Brooklyn does just this; under the vial of a hard-boiled detective novel, this also is a coming of age story as well as exploring life with Tourette’s syndrome. Lionel Essrog has lived with Tourette’s for his entire life, manifesting in physical and vocal tics. He is often referred to as Brooklyn’s human freakshow, which only begins to cover the reactions people to have Lionel’s disorder.

I have to admit I knew very little about Tourette’s syndrome going into this novel, I knew the effects but I did not fully grasp what was going through mind of someone living with the disorder. One of the things I love most about reading fiction is learning about the lives of people living in different cultures or living a different life than my own. Motherless Brooklyn allowed me to explore life living with Tourette, it was an eye opening novel.

On the surface Motherless Brooklyn is a pretty simple hard-boiled detective novel, but exploring growing up as an orphan in an all-boys home with Tourette’s makes this novel great. Jonathan Lethem is a brilliant writer; he takes a typical genre plot and explores just how complex the story can be. I believe The Fortress of Solitude does this with comic books (similar to The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), Gun, With Occasional Music with science fiction and Chronic City with drug culture. I have not read these books, so I might be wrong; either way I am keen to check them out.

I am so glad to have finally picked up a Jonathan Lethem book and Motherless Brooklyn was the perfect starting point. I wanted to stay in this world for as long as possible, and I ended up slowing down on my reading. I have since discovered to joys of reading slowly with The Valley of the Dolls, but Motherless Brooklyn may have been my starting point. I have no idea which Lethem book to read next, I might have to try to get to all of them. Motherless Brooklyn was a great book and I loved that it was set in a hard-boiled setting. The combination between the genre style and understanding Tourette’s worked really well for this novel; highly recommend Motherless Brooklyn to everyone.

The Green Road by Anne Enright

Posted November 11, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Historical Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Green Road (Goodreads)
Author: Anne Enright
Published: Jonathan Cape, 2015
Pages: 312
Genres: Historical Fiction
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Rosaleen Madigan is the matriarch of the Madigan family of County Clare. The Green Road tells the story of this Irish family, from the perspectives of the four children. Each section is dedicated to one child’s perspective from different times of their lives. A unique narrative style, which I believe Anne Enright adopted in her novel The Gathering which won the Man Booker Prize in 2007.

The Green Road explores small fragments of the Madigan family, which can be frustrating for some people but I really enjoyed. I like dipping in and out of this family and their drama. Anna Enright does not make a clear narrative, and leaves a lot to the reader to try and connect the dots. Different readers will make different assumptions from this novel which makes it an interesting book club pick. In fact this was a book club pick for my in-real-life book club.

The novel is emotionally charged and jammed packed full of drama, manipulation and bleak moments which brings together really rich characters and an interesting story. I found Rosaleen to be my favourite character, she is manipulative for what she considers good reasons; all she wants to do is keep the family together. However each section is years apart and we witness this family start out close but slowly drift into strangers.

Anne Enright considers herself a short story writer and it really shows in The Green Road. Each section is tightly compacted and work like little short stories from the same family. Although to read one story and put it down and come back to the next would be a mistake. This book requires the reader to work at making connections and drawing conclusions but I think that is what makes this novel stand out to me. I loved dipping in and out with the Madigan family and just experience the fragments of their lives.

A Late Monthly Review – October 2015

Posted November 10, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments

This is a late monthly wrap up but it is probably better late than never. I have had a busy few weeks and have not had much time to film videos or write posts. October was a pretty great reading month; I was actually surprised that I got through so many books. As many people know, I have recently discovered the joys of reading slowly and I expected to see a drastic drop in the amount of books that I consumed. In the end I still managed to complete eight books, which I still consider pretty impressive.

The first novel I read in the month of October was The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto (translated by Michael Emmerich) and I simply adored this one. This is the first Banana Yoshimoto book I have ever read but it will not be the last. The best way to describe the experience of reading The Lake is like floating. As you read you feel like you are just floating on a lake and it is beautiful and relaxing. However you quickly realise you have floated into unsafe waters and it is dangerous. The psychological elements within this novel are really well done, I feel like I am an instant fan.

After The Lake, I moved onto Candide by Voltaire, which was translated from the French by Theo Cuffe. This was a buddy read with a fellow booktuber; I enjoyed the book and found it hilarious but sadly Lisa from Shut Your Typeface did not. It is a parody of the adventure narrator, while also satirising the philosophy of optimism. I got a lot of joy from the satirical nature and I found connections with this novel and the overly optimistic people found in Christianity. I could go into more depth on my thoughts, but I shall save that for my review.

I finally finished A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, which took me about a month to read. This novel recently won the Man Booker Prize and rightly so; it was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. Then I finally got to My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), which is the first book in the Neapolitan series. I enjoyed this so much that I had to move onto The Story of a New Name (book two) immediately. I would love to read the next two books in the series but I do not own them yet and thought I will hold off; maybe next year.

Halloween was sneaking up, so I thought I should pick up some creepy reads to finish off the month. Firstly I picked up Me and the Devil by Nick Tosches, which was very creepy and oddly brilliant. I have wanted to read some Tosches for a while and I think the man can write. I also read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, both perfect choices for Halloween.

Moving onto November, I plan to devote the entire month reading non-fiction. There is a reading event called Non-Fiction November, which is challenging people to read more non-fiction. There are four different categories; History, Science/Nature, Culture/Society and Biography/Memoir. I have picked my four books, but I thought it was a good opportunity to devote the whole month reading non-fiction. I have finished a few books already and I have been enjoying the experience completely. I hope everyone has a good reading month and let me know what you are planning to read in the comments below.