The Ecstasy of Influence

Starred review from August 22, 2011
Novelist Lethem’s collection of new and previously published works is embedded with cultural influences; particularly prominent is Norman Mailer’s 1959 Advertisements for Myself, which functions like a template for this compendium of obscure writings, liner notes, book introductions, memoir, early unpublished fiction, and even blog bits. The title essay, which first appeared in Harper’s in 2007, is a “collage text” in which Lethem borrows the words of others, from T.S. Eliot and Muddy Waters to Disney films, creating a commentary on plagiarism, allusions, and appropriation. Lethem writes: “Art is sourced. Apprentices graze in the field of culture.” Like Mailer, self-exposure commentaries are interleaved throughout, and Mailer’s notorious “Evaluations: Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room” gives Lethem a springboard for evaluations of writers: J.G. Ballard, Paula Fox, Shirley Jackson, and especially the cosmic consciousness of Philip K. Dick, a major influence on Lethem. In a tsunami of literary and cinematic references, familiar and obscure, Lethem easily rises to the surface as a brilliant, incisive essayist who loves to sing the body eclectic.

Starred review from September 1, 2011

Conceptual ambition, sense of purpose and a fan's evangelical devotion distinguish this collection from the typical novelist's gathering of nonfiction miscellany.

If this is a closet-clearing exercise by Lethem (Chronic City, 2009, etc.), his is an impressively rich closet. In addition to being a writer who blurs the distinction between genre fiction (sci-fi, detective, western) and postmodern literature (a term he questions), Lethem writes with a commitment to sharing his enthusiasm for whatever obsesses him—underdog novelists such as Paula Fox and Thomas Berger, under-acknowledged rock bands such as the Go-Betweens, seminal inspirations such as Philip K. Dick and J.G. Ballard. "I began writing in order to arrive into the company of those whose company meant more to me than any other: the world of books I'd found on shelves and begun to assemble on my own, and the people who'd written them, and the readers who cares as much as I did," he writes toward the conclusion of this collection. While the results illuminate his formative influences and artistic development, they also cast considerable light on the culture at large, which is both reflected in Lethem's work and has profoundly shaped it. His personal pantheon extends from popular music (he writes at incisive length about both Bob Dylan and James Brown) to the international literary alchemy of the late Roberto Bolaño, enlisting the reader as an accomplice in his quest. Intensifying that intimacy, he shares his complicated relationships with two college buddies, Bret Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt, who both achieved precocious literary success well before he did, and he recalls his bitter response to James Wood after the latter wrote a mixed review of Lethem's breakthrough, Motherless Brooklyn.

Inevitably a mixed bag, but with high ambitions and a strong sense of purpose.

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June 1, 2011

In pieces from his entire career, which encompasses essay, memoir, and fiction, renowned novelist Lethem touches on everything from cyberculture to Marlon Brando to the borough of Brooklyn. His aim? To consider the role of the novelist in contemporary culture. Absorbing reading for the smart set.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
The title essay in best-selling novelist Lethem's (Chronic City, 2009) latest collection of peppery nonfiction hit like a bunker buster when it first appeared in Harper's in 2007. In it, Lethem demolishes the big O in artnamely, originalityand shares a vision of art as a public commons. Surrounding this provocative tour de force are further tributes to, inquiries into, and mappings of artistic influence. Rather than merely gathering together these thoughtful and rambunctious pieces in the usual manner, Lethem has dynamically juxtaposed and connected them to create a jazzy, patchwork memoir. Here are tales about working in used-book stores and Lethem's struggles to reconcile his love of literary writers, say Calvino, with his ardor for science fiction, particularly Philip K. Dick. Lethem also riffs on superheroes, Norman Mailer, James Brown, and Shirley Jackson. Then there's the hilarious series, The Drew Barrymore Stories. Lethem tells the tale not of what he's written but of what's he's read, watched, and listened to, and the result is a fresh, erudite, zestful, funny frolic in the great fields of creativity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)