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Book Review By David Loftus
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

Narrator Lionel Essrog is an orphan who has Tourette's syndrome (the often uncontrollable urge to shout nonsense, touch every surface in reach, and rearrange objects). In the 1970s he and a small group of other boys were "borrowed" from St. Vincent's Home in Brooklyn by Frank Minna, a local small-time crime boss and fixer, for odd jobs.

Now, some years later, they're the "Minna Men," who work out of their mentor's "detective agency/limo service" but mostly receive stolen goods, smash up things when ordered to, and occasionally serve as weak guards. But one terrible night Frank Minna is fatally stabbed and thrown into a dumpster, and Lionel must become a real detective.

His search for Frank's killer leads through Frank's bitter wife Julia, who leaves town fast; the strange storefront Zen Buddhist temple that was Frank's last stop before he died; and ultimately to a small town on the coast of Maine where powerful Japanese business interests have revived the local fishing industry due to their willingness to pay big money for urchin eggs. And through it all, Lionel must try to control his Tourette's.

This terrific, engaging literary noir, published in 1999, surely sports one of the strangest private eyes ever seen.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Kids growing up/acting up? Yes
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Crime & Police story Yes
Story of
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Age group of kid(s) in story: - high school
Something wrong upstairs/downstairs? - physical illness/disability
Parents/lack of parents problem?
Wild kid(s)? - committing crimes
Brain/Body disability? - mental illness

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - New York
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids

Writing Style
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - touching of anatomy - actual description of hetero sex
Lot of foul language? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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