media consumption

Motherless Brooklyn

By Jonathan Lethem

In this gripping detective novel and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a group of teenage orphans is "adopted" by a small-time gangster to do various odd (if shady) jobs and eventually form his crew of private detectives in his not-quite-legitimate detective agency. The protagonist is one of these orphans, Lionel Essrog, who happens to have Tourette's syndrome. Lionel witnesses the murder of his boss and, not quite sure whom he can trust, decides to take on the task of pursuing the murderer himself.

The novel unfolds at a breakneck pace and we can almost share his feelings of panic and compulsion as Lionel unravels the web of intrigue surrounding the murder while struggling to hold even the simplest conversations. Immensely addictive and readable, Motherless Brooklyn is a fun twist on the classic detective novel.

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