This is Lethem, so you already know it is a well written book. It has some fine lines, amusing snark, edgy commentary, an engaging narrator, a few well-conceived set pieces, a fair share of perceptive and insightful observations, and lean dialogue. It's also good, sharp fun, with lots of zigs and zags intended to display a very particular sort of human comedy in sharp, but forgiving, relief. I would encourage inquisitive readers who like playing with genre conventions, and who like garrulous, (in a good way), and fanciful walkabout stories, to give the book a try.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback

Having lived on the block of Dean Street around the same time as Jonathan-actually across the street, I come with a certain prejudice. So many things are accurate to the neighborhood. The vignettes and characters are spot on. Definitely gives the feeling of the time.

Full disclosure: Let me start by saying that I have been reading pretty much everything by Jonathan Lethem for more than 20 years and I think he's one of the finest writers working today. Also, I grew up in nearby Queens and worked for several years in Brooklyn before moving to Boston. So, yes, I have an author bias and a location bias. Now I will tell you how excellent his latest novel is, even though you may not like it.

This may be a lengthy review. Sorry, not sorry.

Brooklyn Crime Novel isn't a typical detective story. Forget Sherlock Holmes, red herrings, and smoking guns. Instead, become immersed in a kaleidoscope of authentic New York voices, where the "crime" unfolds not in a single act, but across five decades in a Brooklyn neighborhood.

Lethem weaves together tales of small-time hustlers, petty thieves, and even includes an unsolved murder. But the real intrigue has more to do with delving into the larger crimes of gentrification and the fracturing of community. Here, displacement and cultural erasure become forms of violence, forcing long-time residents to grapple with loss and change.

The author masterfully blends humor and pathos in his best writing since The Fortress of Solitude, also set in his beloved borough of Brooklyn. Each character contributes to a chorus of voices that paint a vivid picture of a community in flux.

And now, a warning: Be prepared to be challenged by this book. Unlike a traditional crime novel, the narrative jumps through time and perspective, demanding active engagement. The lack of a central protagonist, characters that go unnamed, and no true linear plot may knock some readers off balance and force a dreaded DNF.

However, if you're seeking a thought-provoking exploration of community, crime, and the evolution of a community, I highly recommend it. But if you prefer clear-cut plots and immediate emotional investment, this unconventional journey might not be for you. Ultimately, Brooklyn Crime Novel is an ode to a changing city — and a unique reading experience that I'm still thinking about a week after finishing it.

A fever dream of a novel, one that at first got my hackles up before I let it wash over me. Incredibly atmospheric, fun and tragic at the same time. Absorbing. I'm in Boerum Hill often and will definitely look at the streets and house numbers with new eyes.

I don’t know why the formatting was weird because I think I’ve read other books from this publisher that were fine? But at this point, rather than get annoyed at formatting, I’ll just buy a copy and read it that way.

Published by Ecco on October 3, 2023

Every other Jonathan Lethem book I’ve read, I enjoyed. This one didn’t speak to me. The story, to the extent that one exists, is told in a series of vignettes that explore an significant number of mostly male characters of varying ages and races and their relationships in Brooklyn between the 1930s and the upcoming end of the Trump administration.

The first sentence of chapter 2 is “This is a story about what nobody knows.” Count me among those who don’t know. Lethem later confesses that he’s probably losing the reader. Count me among the lost. Confessing that you're turning off readers is a very postmodernist thing to do, but it makes the book unappealing for anyone but diehard students of postmodernism.

I don’t fault Lethem for lack of ambition. I imagine he was trying to create a micro-history of Brooklyn with an emphasis on its unsavory flavors, a chronicle of changes that replaced impoverished criminals with wealthy ones. I fault the meandering execution, the episodic storytelling that never quite coheres, the failure to encourage readers to invest in the characters. To me, the novel felt like scenes cut from a movie. I would rather have seen the movie.

Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. Lethem’s attempts to create a level of intimacy with the reader that he fails to achieve. I generally enjoy Lethem's prose, as I did in this novel, but sharp sentences just aren't enough. Some street scenes are vivid; some characters have the feel of authenticity. But — perhaps because I’m getting old — I lost track the characters and then lost track of my attempts to keep track of them. Finally, I lost interest.

NOT RECOMMENDED

One of the myriad of reasons Lethem will always be his ability to both hop and disregard genre norms. Brooklyn Crime Novel is EXACTLY that and it's flawless.

If youre from Brooklyn, this book will be much easier to follow than if you're not (a lot of the references and descriptions really do feel pointed towards a native NYer of which I am). This is pure Letham, a writer who weaves a story centered first on place, then time and with personalities around it (which is why I think names are dismissed here). This doesn't have a normal novel structure, with vignettes scattered and brought together to tell one full tale, similar to an anthology movie. It means you can zoom in and out understanding a place is made up of many, not just one, and all the mundane.

In the gritty streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual unfolds, a dance of survival. Here, money changes hands, possessions are surrendered, and power is asserted. The threat of violence lingers everywhere, a currency in its own right. For these children, spanning diverse backgrounds of Black, brown, and white, the street serves as a dimly lit stage, where the play of life unfolds. In the wings, hidden from view, stand the other actors: the police, the developers, the landlords, the authors of headlines, histories, and laws, and those who christen this neighbourhood with its name. The rules may seem clear at first, but within the prism of memory, the roles of criminals and victims can appear to shift. The voices of the past may harmonize and then clash, engaged in a constant battle.

Through a series of interconnected vignettes, this narrative transports the reader to 1970s Brooklyn, the genesis of its gentrification. It revolves around the young boys of Dean Street, showcasing the rich tapestry of cultures and ethnicities that coexist and collide in this neighbourhood. In an era marked by minor offences, it delves into their lives, traces their journeys into more modern times, and explores the displacement of both old and new inhabitants in the area.

This novel serves as a potent social commentary, delving into history and embedding a mystery throughout its narrative. The author adroitly shifts between different timelines and nameless characters to weave a compelling story. Beyond its characters, the book offers insightful observations about the neighbourhood and the cultural dynamics within it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Brooklyn Crime Novel, Jonathan Lethem invites you to sit down on a stoop and listen to a story that’s already in progress, one that will loop and reiterate and grow and spin forever. With a casual, conversational tone, the narrator informs the reader that there will be no names because names don’t matter, and in that way the story becomes an allegory, even as, hyper aware of itself, it contains a character called the Allegorical Kid.

Th

Really enjoyed reading this book. Fans of Jonathan Lethem will love this and hoping to read more of him soon. He has such a good grasp of Brooklyn, like James Joyce with Dublin. I loved the characters and setting.

A panoply of characters come together to form a kaleidoscopic novel/memoir of growing up as a boy in Brooklyn in the 70's and 80's, with brief digressions forward and backward into other decades. Experimental in form, with a century of slapdash passages sewn together with no real care for chronology or cohesiveness. Many of the passages are one-off stories, while others tie into one narrative despite being 50 or 60 pages apart. Through this work, Lethem addresses crimes, both big and small, moral and philosophical, theorized and real. Looming over all of this is gentrification, multiple waves of it and how it shaped those who lived through it.

Many of biggest criticisms for the books are addressed ahead of time in-text with Lethem breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader. This is done the same short, staccato prose as the rest of the book and it is largely charming and lends the feel of the cool kid putting his arm around your shoulder and inviting you into the inner circle. A book likely not for everyone but largely enjoyable and a great insight into a vanished era.

I am a big fan of Lethem and the subject matter/time period seemed right up my alley. Plus, I usually like novels/books that are not told in straight linear fashion. However, this one just did not hold my interest. I found myself struggling to complete it which has never happened with a Lethem novel before. I will likely give a re-read at some point in the future but it just wasn't my cup of tea this go round.

Authors so closely identified with the locales in their works are those that have had lifelong experience, and along with Pete Hamill and Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem is the personification of Brooklyn. He knows the streets, the stories, most notably, the people, and here I'd like to think he delves into meta to display his personal history. These characters breathe from early days through the rough times and weathering the withering of gentrification. Watching their row houses become targets of developers, changing their neighborhood forever. Speaking in distinctive local style, they portray Brooklyn as only true natives could.

A sense of place is at the center of Jonathan Lethem's Brooklyn Crime Novel, but that place changes through time as we see Brooklyn's Dean Street through a series of vignettes unstuck in time. The recurrent focus is that stated in the title Brooklyn crimes, both petty and serious, and specifically the crime of gentrification.

Across six chapters and 124 sections, Lethem dips in and out of different people's lives or describes different locations with some narrator tangents told in the voice of both "we" and "I" anywhere from the 1930s to the 2010s. We see many of the denizens of Boerum Hill's Dean Street, mostly children of the 1970s. This is the time period when Brooklyn become more of an attractive living space and many white families move in to restore or renovate brownstones in mainly Black neighborhoods.

A lot of the crimes that takes place are results of the tensions between peoples, poor versus better off, neighborhood versus neighborhood, racially motivated crime. Most frequently discussed is "the dance" when white children have their pocket money stolen through the threat of force. Lessons are learned, such as not bringing playthings out on the street where they might find a new owner by dint of timing and swift feet. Sometimes the crimes are told with a farcical eye other times they emphasize loss or an escalation.

Characters are revisited, sometimes throughout their lives other times they are mentioned as a neighborhood fixture and then used as a shared landmark. Most of them are male children concerned with their own youth, their secretive home lives and their street lives never shared with parents. One child is "C" a Black child who befriends those of any race, often serving as their entry point to city life. There is "the screamer" a young woman who shouts out the window (one section is a list of some of the things she's screamed). Many of the vignettes are about pairs, two boys who play lots of board games together, a mixed race gay couple discovering their feelings, and others. But this is really the only way we get to know the characters, not by name, but by nickname provided by either the narrator, peers or their actions.

It is by no means a traditional novel, but instead is almost a palimpsest of a neighborhood. A reflection on the bits that survive alongside the gaps only fill-able by memories. It embraces the joys of playing in a fire hydrant's flow on a hot summer day or the awkwardness of finding and making friends to the challenges of transitioning from childhood things to the possibilities of sex, drugs and violence of adulthood.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an early copy of Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem

It will not be lost on the reader that the title of this book features "crime" and in the broader sense it is a sad statement of childhood/youth/adolescence in a Brooklyn, NY that is as far removed from a carefree childhood in America as growing up in the Middle East.

Using a series of vignettes that are loosely connected by place, author Jonathan Lethem presents to the reader an uncomfortable and often damaging look at the young people of Brooklyn living lives that are never really at peace. Forming small "gangs", teaching someone younger the art of stealing, racial tensions and drug use are only a few of the realities of life in this New York borough.

One of the saddest statements in the book is the musing of one young person who states that the young citizens here learn more about police from television cops than they ever do from the real thing.

While the writing does spark a few chuckles throughout the novel, it is almost with a sense of being a traitor that the reader cracks a smile.

Lethem's work here is thoughtfully presented and is completely original in its style.

This book was fascinating to me. The way a place changes over time and what has an effect on those changes, as well as how those changes then affect the people and place even more, kept me reading. Unfortunately, I often found myself rereading because the writing style was so removed that I never became as engrossed in the novel as I like to be. I could not immerse myself in this place. I remained an outsider.

This is the author’s 12th novel, mot of which I have read and (mostly) enjoyed, and nearly all of them were rather different from each other. In his earlier work, especially, Lethem appeared to want to try everything -- cozy murder mystery, science fiction, Chandleresque detective noir, post-apocalyptic road trip, Bildungsroman, comic book superhero, and every other genre you can think of. This one is not so much a “novel” as a large collection of shortish vignettes and scenes, but they all take place in Brooklyn in the mid-’70s, with an occasional jump to the present day for the purposes of reflection on how the past used to be. In fact, Brooklyn, the author’s home town, is itself the focus of all the pieces. It’s more important in many ways that the human characters, most of whom are never even given names. They're just “the Dean Street boys” (and they don’t all live on Dean Street), “Mr. Clean” (because he’s bald, or because he keeps his 1968 Dodge Dart Swinger so clean?), “the Italians” (who won’t allow the Dean Street boys into their neighborhood), and so on.

To the kids, every little sub-neighborhood, a few blocks along a single street, constituted a separate world, practically a micro-nation of its own. The Dean Street boys are a mix of white, brown, and black, and they think nothing of it among themselves, but they’re also aware of the racial attitudes among many of their elders. (Although Brooklyn, of course, is nothing like Alabama in that regard.) The times they are a-changing, and the kids are changing along with it, though they’re not conscious of that until much later. As one of the most important changes, the overarching theme of the book is the beginning of gentrification in the borough before anyone quite agreed on what the word meant. There’s almost no direct dialogue, no quotation marks, but the sections dealing with interactions among residents are written in pure Brooklynese. And Lethem is fluent in that, as well as being a master of the language in general. (For example, in regard to what it was like growing up at that time, he notes, “We’ll call the sixties a draw.”)

Because of the way it’s written, it’s perfectly possible to read a few pages at a time, go and do something else, and then come back to it later. Many of the characters return over and over and some of the incidents are are scattered throughout as well, but you can still take your time and pause to think about what you’re read. In fact, this may turn out to be one of Lethem;s most thought-provoking works.

DNF -

I recognize that this is good writing, it just isn't for me. I prefer a bit more narrative meat and less geographical description.