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: ****
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