"Motherless Brooklyn" - Jonathan Lethem

Published in 1999 by Vintage

Where to start, where to start? This novel compels you to read in candlelight with some jazz playing in the background; this book is part film noir, part slick detective, and just one small dash of crazy tourettic outbursts that jar you into the present and get stuck in your head.  Lionel Essrog is a brooklyn orphan and minion of Frank Minna.  Over the years he and the other Minna Men grow from gangly teenagers into half-adults who still view Frank as their light and savior while still trying to shark his position out from under him.  So when Frank is murdered, it falls to Lionel, his most loyal underling to solve the crime.

This all happens with Lionels Tourettes playing second fiddle.  The quiet calm of a Zen Retreat, split in two with his rambling yells.  Sneaking up on a possible suspect, he must make sure to touch all the surfaces in the car 5 times.

Lethem calls to mind other stories that indirectly allow the audience to experience a disability without it taking over the story.  His Lionel is at once charming and annoying, just like any human, and I would have been happy if the story had gone on a while longer.

Quotes:
"(Tourette Dreams)

(in Tourette dreams you shed your tics)

(or your tics shed you)

(and you go with them, astonished to leave yourself behind)"

"Guilt I knew something about.  Vengeance was another story entirely.  I'd have to think about vengeance."

"To both of them and to you I say: Put and egg in your shoe, and beat it.  Make like a tree, and leave.  Tell your story walking."

Rating: ****

"Angela's Ashes" - Frank McCourt

Published in 1996 by Scribner

When I was 11 or 12 I read this book and thought it was the best thing ever, so rereading it and actually still enjoying it was a true treat!  Admittedly, the parts I remember most vividly aren't really huge story points and probably just stuck in my young mind most because they were my first introduction to some grown up themes.

"Angela's Ashes" is the story of Frankie McCourt and his life from age 1-20, growing up first in New York, then in Ireland, and his final journey back to America.  Like many memoirs, there is a drunk father and a sick mother, but it is his writing style that makes it interesting and colorful instead of sad and melodramatic.  I was swept up with his sentences, reading in an accent in my head, and incapable of putting the book down even at 2 am before I had a morning shift.

While at times sad (the gains and losses of his siblings) it is also a funny, compelling and heartwarming (at times) tale of growing up and being forced to take responsibility for himself and his family at a young age.

Still one of my favorites.

Rating: ****

"The Tragedy of Arthur" - Arthur Phillips

The tragedy of Ebooks is that you can't flip through them before committing and buying your $12 file.  Had I been able to do that, I probably wouldn't have gone with this book as half of it is a "Shakespearean tale" and I don't really like reading Shakespeare.

The novels first half centers around the character of Arthur Phillips, a man who has never been able to forgive his con-artist father for being in prison his whole life.  It also incorporates his twin sister and to a minimal extent his family in a foreign country.  But in all honesty, I didn't really care for the book and felt that the emotional connections were too far reaching and less than plausible.  Phillips has a tendency to introduce characters and let them slip away.

boohoo, whatever, I shall read something else. Like this super interesting article describing an event that happened a long while ago that is basically the same idea as the book!

Rating: **