Add BookmarkMen and Cartoons
Jonathan Lethem’s new collection of stories is a feast for his fans and the perfect introduction for new readers—nine fantastic, amusing, poignant tales written in a dizzying variety of styles, as Lethem samples high and low culture to create fictional worlds that are utterly original. Longtime readers will recognize echoes of Lethem’s novels in all these pieces—narrators who can’t stop babbling, hapless would-be detectives, people with unusual powers that do t... (show more)
Jonathan Lethem’s new collection of stories is a feast for his fans and the perfect introduction for new readers—nine fantastic, amusing, poignant tales written in a dizzying variety of styles, as Lethem samples high and low culture to create fictional worlds that are utterly original. Longtime readers will recognize echoes of Lethem’s novels in all these pieces—narrators who can’t stop babbling, hapless would-be detectives, people with unusual powers that do them no good, hot-blooded academics, and characters whose clever repartee masks lovelorn desperation as they negotiate both the stumbling path of romance and the bittersweet obligations of friendship.
Among them:
“The Vision” is a story about drunken neighborhood parlor games, boys who dress up as superheroes, and the perils of snide curiosity.
“Access Fantasy” is part social satire, part weird detective story. Evoking Lethem’s earliest work, it conjures up a world divided between people who have apartments and people trapped in an endless traffic jam behind The One-Way Permeable Barrier.
“The Spray” is a simple story about how people in love deal with their past. A magical spray is involved.
“Vivian Relf” is a tour de force about loss. A man meets a woman at a party; they’re sure they’ve met before, but they haven’t. As the years progress this strangely haunting encounter comes to define the narrator’s life.
“The Dystopianist, Thinking of His Rival, Is Interrupted by a Knock on the Door” is a Borgesian tale that features suicidal sheep. (This story won a Pushcart Prize when first published in Conjunctions.)
“Super Goat Man” is a savagely funny exposé of the failures of the sixties baby boomers, and of their children.
Sparkling with the off-beat humor and subtle insights, Men and Cartoons is a welcome addition to the shelf of the writer “whose bold imagination and sheer love of words defy all forms and expectations and place him among his country’s foremost novelists.”
—Salon
Related Media
Photo Gallery
Similar Books
You might like these
Reviews (See all 60) Write a reviewfor this
-
Jonathan Lethem is one of the most distinctive and inventive writers of fiction today. From "Gun with Occasional Music" to "You Don't Love Me Yet," Lethem has shown an uncanny ability to transport readers into a world that, upon reflection, is incredibly strange but at the same time feels right.
"Men and Cartoons," Lethem's second collection of short stories, shows the (many) strengths of his writing, but also the danger in letting his fertile imagination run... (show more)
Jonathan Lethem is one of the most distinctive and inventive writers of fiction today. From "Gun with Occasional Music" to "You Don't Love Me Yet," Lethem has shown an uncanny ability to transport readers into a world that, upon reflection, is incredibly strange but at the same time feels right.
"Men and Cartoons," Lethem's second collection of short stories, shows the (many) strengths of his writing, but also the danger in letting his fertile imagination run wild. The nine stories in the book are all beautifully written if uneven.
"The Vision" and "Vivian Relf" show the wistful evocation of earlier times that Lethem used to great effect in his latest, and best known works, "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Fortress of Solitude," as he evokes the follies and foibles of youth and how they hang on into adulthood. Along with "Super Goat Man," there is the powerful undercurrent of regret and nostalgia that haunts his best work.
"The Spray" and "Access Fantasy" tap the same veins, but show the powerful science fiction imagination that feuled Lethem's earlier work and were showed to great effect in his short story collection "The Wall of Sky, the Wall of Eye." The latter story also shows the potential weakness of being so inventive- wonderful ideas not fully realized. Perhaps we are meant to take the existence of the One-Way Permeable Barrier for granted, but a little more on it might have heloed the story hang together better.
"The Dystopianist" is an interesting vignette of what might happened were a writer to be visited, even briefly, by his creations. The stark realism with which the story is written stands in relief to the absurdity and surrealism of the story. Other stories in the book, though well-written, failed to leave much impression.
Taken as a whole, "Men and Cartoons" is a wonderful collection of stories by a masterful writer. Readers who have never read Lethem can get a sample of the variety of styles he uses, while old readers can get a Lethem fix. (show less)
Already read
-
Nearly all of these stories are incredibly strange. Most of the time, this is a good thing, but some of the time it is not. When Lethem is not on his game, he relies much to heavily on sex and drug cliches to fuel his characters and provide the impetus needed to keep the plot going. Fortunately, most of these stories stay far enough away from those particular tropes that the stories are interesting.
In the very best stories in this collection (Super Goat Man, for instance) Lethem uses the ... (show more)
Nearly all of these stories are incredibly strange. Most of the time, this is a good thing, but some of the time it is not. When Lethem is not on his game, he relies much to heavily on sex and drug cliches to fuel his characters and provide the impetus needed to keep the plot going. Fortunately, most of these stories stay far enough away from those particular tropes that the stories are interesting.
In the very best stories in this collection (Super Goat Man, for instance) Lethem uses the strangeness that is his trade mark to enhance, rather than pilot the stories. Goat Man, in fact, clearly presages Fortress of Solitude in the way it saddens, softens, and humanizes the idea of superpowers.
Of the 11 stories in the collection, six are quiet good, another couple are more than adequate, but there are two or three that just don't get the job done. (show less)
Already read
- See all reviews
Lists
This book has been added to these lists:
More Stuff
About Us
LivingSocial.com is a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to review and share their favorite movies, books, games, music, restaurants and beer
