Jonathan Lethem never fails to entertain,a solid collection of short stories,speculative literature.#NetGalley #eccobooks

I am very grateful to receive this ARC from NetGalley--I love Jonathan Lethem. I find his stories intriguing,. thought-provoking and often disturbing. I'll admit my favorite story in this collection, The Red Sun School of Thoughts, is the most realistic of the stories (with a sudden veering off toward the end of the story into science fiction which was a surprise and although a little jarring worth its strangeness because of its humor but also tantalizing hints of differing perspectives, shifts into other kinds of thinking, and possibilities of future worlds to come). Most of the story concerns an adolescent boy whose mother is dying and whose father is, mostly absent and so self-absorbed that even when he is physically present he is not fully present. The boy is struggling (as Lethem's boys--and adolescents)--often are) with figuring out who he is and how he fits into the world. iespecially loved all the musical references and what they mean to the boy. It takes place in San Francisco amongst a diverse group of people living together in a kind of commune.

Another story I particularly like is "Pending Vegan," about a man (husband and father) struggling with increasing awareness of what is wrong in his world, his society. As is generally true in these stories, and Lethem generally, there is a lot of humor in this story, as well as sadness and anxiety.

The stories are generally science fiction explorations of worlds, future dystopias for the most part. And although they are meaningful and self-contained, they also felt to me like fragments of a larger consciousness, a fuller narrative that is coherent and unsettling. And, of course, beautifully written.

Many of these stories have been published elsewhere, although also included are four new ones.

A Different Kind of Tension lives up to its title. The stories surprise, disturb, intrigue and glisten with beautiful sentences and a coherent vision.

I want to thank Ecco Press, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with an early reviewer copy of this book and I strongly recommend it for anyone who loves good writing and new perspectives on humanity.

Lethem did a great job with the dialogue, something he's well known for. I liked the pacing and how the characters made the story move instead of being moved by the story.

Letham, who is so accomplished in the literary novel sphere, brings a sold collection of short stories that delve into Speculative fiction in only the way he can.

Jonathan Lethem is a super interesting writer. His short stories frequently capture some of the sad, weird, technologically-mediated forms of human relationships that are so characteristic of our age.

While I've liked some of Lethem's work in the past, there wasn't much in this collection that I enjoyed. Some of the stories are interesting from a lit studies perspective, but they too often felt like exercises without significant thought behind them.

Jonathan Lethem has been entertaining me for over 25 years with his wit and imagination. This collection is a bit uneven, and I admit having to struggle with otherworldly subjects. His longer books, featuring life in New York, are preferable, but I did enjoy a chance to become acquainted with his shorter works.

Thirty-one stories, dozens of themes and countless innovations, A Different Kind of Tension will engage the imaginations of all readers.

It’s fascinating to see how creative minds viewed what the future might look like from the past. Lethem's visions are more expansive than jet packs and flying cars. My favorite stories in this collection move from the retro to high-tech seamlessly. It is impossible to tell if any specific short tale was composed in the 1980’s or 2020’s. Bob Dylan, mind-altering substances, Star Wars, Brooklyn, punk-rock, our characters embody cool corners of space familiar to Baby-Boomers and Generation X.

Standout scenes include a swinger party in which any drugs or alcohol consumed is transferred between characters by kissing, gridlock traffic jams so long that drivers fantasize about being elsewhere by watching palatial real estate demonstrations on screens in their car, carny-types who set up low-rent virtual reality stations to allow audience members the chance to watch what hungry players will do in a second-life type environment. We get to jump from analog to cyberpunk, from literary to experimental.

Other highlights include the man engaged in a sales presentation on Skype who bleeds more profusely with each passing minute, the boy who discovers truths about himself and his father while living in a commune filled with compelling mini-stories in every room, and the apartment burgled and the police's special spray outline people among the missing objects.

Every dart thrown by Lethem hits the board, some strike the center of the bullseye.

Thank you to Ecco Books and Netgalley for a review copy.