Jonathan Lethem
United States
1964-
Search for works owned by Grinnell College
here.
"Mr. Lethem has made many books, including Gun
with Occasional Music, a scathing renunciation of
Neo-Orthodox Catholicism, and Girl in Landscape,
a reevaluation of British foreign policy after the Opium
War. His...book...Motherless Brooklyn [is] a
detective story wherein the protagonist suffers from Tourette's,
and goes on to marry the young Ladybird Johnson. . . .
Lethem was born in the United States sometime after WWII.
He has brown hair and does not wear hats. He is known
for his quick wit and even quicker temper." (The
McSweeney's Interview).
"Lethem once explained that 'Everything I write is
informed by genre traditions, which I love deeply. At
the same time, I don't think I've written without straining
against genre boundaries, and I've often violated them
outright. I think my work reveals traces of an extremely
eclectic reading history, and my narrative is also particularly
informed by film. But my dearest models are nearly all
twentieth-century Americans pursuing high art through
popular forms: Shirley Jackson, Philip K. Dick, John Ford,
Charles Willeford, George Herriman, and Patricia Highsmith,
for instance.' To Gaffney he expressed his disdain for
the tendency to pigeonhole writers by genre and his sympathy
for those 'who had embattled careers because of genre
prejudice, something I've had the good fortune to be spared.
I sort of feel [science fiction writer] Philip K. Dick
died for my sins.'" (Contemporary Authors Online).
For more information, check out the display in Burling
or visit Lethem's page in Literary
Resource Center online...
Related Authors:
Carter Scholz (1953-)
Michael Chabon (1963-)
Dave Eggers (1970-)
Phillip K. Dick (1928-1982)
