-
“Finding out whodunit is interesting enough, but it’s more fun watching Lethem unravel the mysteries of his Tourettic creation.”
— Time
-
“Immerses us in the mind’s dense thicket, a place where words split and twine in an ever-deepening tangle.”
— New York Times Book Review
-
“Wonderfully inventive, slightly absurdist…[Motherless Brooklyn] is funny and sly, clever, compelling, and endearing.”
— USA Today
-
“Philip Marlowe would blush. And tip his fedora.”
— Newsweek
-
“Most rewarding…Delightfully oddball.”
— New Yorker
-
“The best novel of the year…Utterly original and deeply moving.”
— Esquire
-
“In Essrog…Lethem has fashioned a lovably strange man-child and fill his cross-wired mind with a crashing, self-referential interior monologue that is at once laugh-out-loud funny, tender, and in the honest service of a terrific story.”
— Washington Post Book World
-
“Gripping, mournful, touching, and comic…One of the greatest feats of first-person narration in recent American fiction.”
— Washington Post
-
“With one unique and well-imagined character, Jonathan Lethem has turned a genre on its ear. He doesn’t just push the envelope, he gives it a swift kick…A tour de force.”
— Denver Post
-
“Jonathan Lethem is one of the most original voices among younger American novelists…His imagination [is] marvelously fertile.”
— Newsday
-
“Superbly balances beautiful writing and an engrossing plot.”
— Atlanta Journal Constitution
-
“Motherless Brooklyn, is, among other things, a tale of orphans, a satire of Zen in the city, and a murder mystery.”
— Time Out New York
-
“Lethem’s sixth sense for the secret enchantments of language and the psyche…make [Motherless Brooklyn] well worth the ride.”
— Publishers Weekly
-
“The author has applied his trademark genre-bending style to fine effect. Already well known among critics for his literary gifts, Lethem should gain a wider readership with this appealing book’s debut.”
— Library Journal
-
“A brilliantly imagined riff on the classic detective tale…Don’t miss this one.”
— Kirkus Reviews