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Motherless Brooklyn
Motherless Brooklyn: A Novel | Jonathan Lethem
From America's most inventive novelist, Jonathan Lethem, comes this compelling and compulsive riff on the classic detective novel.Lionel Essrog is Brooklyn's very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways.Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel's colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim's widow skips town. Lionel's world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head.Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.BONUS MATERIAL:This edition includes an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem'sDissident Gardens.
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Amiable
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Pickpick

Ostensibly a crime novel, this is really more of a first-person perspective of a person with Tourette‘s. Lionel is an interesting character unlike any I‘ve seen in a book before. We see how he navigates the world while battling his many, many tics and compulsions. Interesting for that insight, but the actual crime part of the plot was underwhelming for me. A soft pick.

keithmalek I always found this novel to be over-rated. And being that I live in Brooklyn, that only adds to my disappointment. 11mo
Amiable @keithmalek Right? I normally adore novels of any kind set in NYC. This one, not so much. 11mo
67 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Meshell1313
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#alphabetgame #letterM @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My choice for ‘M‘ is not only a fantastic read but has one of the best opening paragraphs I‘ve ever read!

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Sounds good! 2y
19 likes1 comment
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yoavshai
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#BookCoverChallenge
Day 49.
Here I will note 365 books (or as many as I will have before I get tired) that have shaped my taste in literature. No explanations, no reviews. Just the cover of the book.
I do not challenge anyone. You are all welcome to take part.

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Jas16
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Pickpick

This book had been sitting unread on my shelves for years. The characters were all colorful and fun to read about and the novel definitely nails the noir vibe but I cared way more about Lionel than I did the mystery at the center of the plot. I think I expected to be blown away and this was between a pick and so-so for me.

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JackOBotts
Pickpick

A classic detective novel with a modern twist. The plot moved along more slowly that I would have liked, but I liked Lionel as an unlikely leading man. News of the Edward Norton adaptation put this book on my radar a while back, so I‘m interested in seeing how Norton adapted the source for his screenplay. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jas16 Coincidentally just started this one today. 3y
JackOBotts @Jas16 Ooh! I hope you enjoy! 3y
33 likes2 comments
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JackOBotts
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Musing about detective novels within a detective novel. I see what you did there. 😉🕵🏻‍♂️

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JackOBotts
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Context is everything.

#FirstLineFridays

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BlueMoonJ
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Pickpick

Watched the movie adaptation of Motherless Brooklyn tonight. Wasn't bad. Wasn't great either, but it did inspire me to pull out my Letham collection and give them a re-read.
I highly recommend the book and mostly recommend the movie. I mean, Ed Norton....can't really go completely wrong!

#booktomovie

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Liz_M
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See All 9 Comments
OriginalCyn620 I know! It‘s hard to narrow it down to 3! 4y
BarbaraBB Such a great stack 😍😍😍 - and your cat 😻😻 4y
LeahBergen Kitty! ❤️ 4y
Liz_M @BarbaraBB Thanks! 4y
Liz_M @LeahBergen Poor Bert (#catsoflitsy) was confused/concerned about these objects interfering with his play space. 4y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I‘m posting twice today!! 😂😂 4y
30 likes9 comments
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Liz_M
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Thanks for the tag @Graywacke! I decided two tags means I get to play twice 😀

Some of my other five 🌟 favorites are
📚The Age of Innocence
📚Motherless Brooklyn
📚The Things They Carried

I'd also like to see @arubabookwoman and @JenniferP list their #favs!

batsy The Age of Innocence is so good! 4y
vivastory I just set aside #2 for my immediate TBR last night 4y
Billypar Motherless Brooklyn is one of my favorites as well- Lionel Essrog is on my shortlist of favorite literary characters. 4y
Liz_M I was reading MB when I was looking for my first NYC apartment. I was on the N train, going from Sunset Park to Astoria, and in my efforts to suppress laughter ended up making swine-like snorting noises. Only a few people bothered to notice. 😂😂😂 4y
14 likes4 comments
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Blaire
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Mehso-so

A young man with Tourette‘s is plucked from his school and brought into a small time mobsters detective agency. A very different kind of book, I liked the character of Lionel, and the way his tics and explanations of Tourette‘s were part of the story, but I didn‘t love the actual story and it was slow-going for me. #unpopularopinion I‘d be interested to see Ed Norton bring Lionel to the screen.

SamAnne I keep trying to read his books and for some reason they just don‘t capture me and I can‘t put my finger on why. 4y
Blaire @SamAnne happy to hear I‘m not alone. This took me almost two weeks to read which is unusual for me and it didn‘t pull me in the way I expected. 4y
54 likes1 stack add2 comments
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melrailey
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Pickpick

This was a great audio and book.

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amma-keep-reading

I was pleasantly surprised by this unique story. I'm happy to finally cross it off my TBR.

P. S. I recommend the audiobook

4 likes1 stack add
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Lizpixie
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Bk7 of my #QuarantineLibraryHaul is a crime noir novel set in 1950s Brooklyn, it follows a PI that‘s trying to solve the murder of his mentor & boss. His one big obstacle is he has Tourette‘s Syndrome which can be a problem when you‘re trying to be inconspicuous. There‘s a recent Ed Norton movie based on this, but I‘ve heard it‘s not great, hopefully the book is better🤞

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LatrelWhite
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Brooklyn's very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, Lionel Essrog is an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency.

LatrelWhite Audiobook was crazy took me while to understand the outbreaks. Ended up being pretty good. Watching the movie now!!!!😜 4y
10 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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PNWBookseller85
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Pickpick

Might be the time of year, (December, working at a bookstore) but this book was slow going for me. I really enjoyed it ultimately, and I think it‘ll be one of those books where my experience of it gets better with time. Loved Lionel. And I can‘t wait to see the movie.

lynneamch Me too. It's on Greer Macallister's Chicago Review of Books article up today The 11 Best Lit-to-Screen Adaptations Of 2019 – Chicago Review of Books
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2019/12/12/lit-to-screen-adaptations/
4y
73 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Bookwormjillk
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Pickpick

I‘m not sure how it is on paper but this made for very good audio.

#WinterGames TBR read
#elfies

phatsallylee The movie was really good. I couldn't believe that it took 20 years for ed Norton to adapt to film! 4y
Bookwormjillk @phatsallylee this seems like it would translate really well into a movie 4y
31 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Bookwormjillk
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I‘ve done a ton of audiobaking over the past two days while listening to the tagged book. Here is a picture of one of my favorite quick breads. For me it isn‘t Christmas without it.

(It was hard to get the recipe in the picture, but if anyone wants it I‘m happy to email)

#elfies #WinterGames

Patchshank You might be able to load a picture of the whole recipe onto Imgur then post a link to the image. 4y
Patchshank The bread does look good though. I forgot to mention that. 4y
Avanders Ok yes please. Leathy18 at gmail. 😁😁 4y
24 likes3 comments
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GidgetsTreasures75
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11-29-19: My 97th finished book of 2019! #motherlessbrooklyn #jonathanlethem 👍🏼📖#️⃣9️⃣7️⃣

PerksOfBeingABookworm 97! That‘s very impressive 🙌🏼 4y
10 likes2 comments
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Mitch
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Looking forward to this one....#booktoscreen

TheBookHippie Me too!!! 4y
wanderinglynn Me too! 4y
phatsallylee It was good. I didn't read the book before watching but ed Norton is awesome! 4y
JackOBotts I read a profile on Ed Norton in an airplane mag...he worked on this adaptation for a loooooong time. Bought the rights shortly after its release (back when he was filming Fight Club). Looking forward to experiencing both book & film, eventually! 📚 (edited) 4y
Anna40 Never heard of the book! I think Edward Norton is fantastic. Very smart, great actor. Did he direct the movie? 4y
68 likes3 stack adds5 comments
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Mitch
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MrBook
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My #bookhaul from today 😁👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻☺️!

I‘m a huge Finder and Forsyth fan. This‘ll be my first foray with Waxman and Lethem.

Any fans of any of these four authors?!

#MrBooksBooks

Branwen The Bookish Life Of Nina Hill is SO FANTASTIC! 😍📚💕 4y
JenReadsAlot Loved Nina Hill.... 4y
mcipher I enjoyed both Nina Hill and Motherless Brooklyn! Two great, very very different authors and books. 4y
LibrarianRyan Nice stack. 4y
AmyRebecca Enjoy your new reads! 4y
72 likes2 stack adds5 comments
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Mitch
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Excited by this - hitting the big screen on 30 November 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Ruthiella They have to get Boris right! He was my favorite character from the book! 5y
Mitch @Ruthiella fingers crossed! 5y
74 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Allietaylor16
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Sunday reading with Hank...I really wish I knew what he is thinking.

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SunriseBooks

Lionel is one of my favorite characters ever. I wish I could insert him into other books just to shake things up.

3 likes1 stack add
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writerlibrarian
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Pickpick

Not a classic mystery novel, far from it. Lionel, the lead character, his inner dialogs, his fears, his obsessions You see, Lionel has Tourette syndrome and Motherless Brooklyn is as much a trip inside Lionel's brain as it is a quest to finally become his own man and finally grow up. It's not an easy read. It took me more than a week to go through because reading Lionel delirious words takes a toll but it's worth the time. #winterwonderland

TrishB Sounds complicated and quite a difficult read. 5y
Cinfhen I‘m intrigued #stacked 5y
writerlibrarian @TrishB i won't lie the writing, the way Lionel talks, thinks takes an effort at first to understand the beat, the way the words repeat. But it's so worth it. It took me a week because I didn't want it to end. 5y
43 likes1 stack add4 comments
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REPollock
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Pickpick

How bizarrely compelling. I read the damn thing at a racing clip.

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REPollock
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My power has been out since last night thanks to Hurricane Michael, but I did get to sit in this chair and read the tagged book with a flashlight for a few hours.

batsy Take care! Do you have any idea when it will be restored? 5y
REPollock @batsy they haven‘t given me an estimate. Something like 500,000 people lost power statewide so who knows. 😐 5y
22 likes2 comments
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BarbaraBB
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This story, set in Brooklyn, follows Lionel Essrog, a detective who has Tourette's, which marks his behaviour by involuntary tics and #swearing in a quite original way. The whole novel is quite original.
#heatofjuly

lynneamch Thanks! I'm a sucker for anything set in Brooklyn and just found it available on Overdrive! 6y
readordierachel This is my mom's favorite book 🙂 6y
Billypar One of my favorites: what a great idea for this prompt! Makes you look at swearing in a whole new light. 6y
Liz_M I LOVE 😍 this book so much. It's exactly my sort of humor; it made me snort laugh on the subway 😁 6y
59 likes5 stack adds4 comments
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lahousewyfe
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Pickpick

I avoided this book for the longest time, but once I started reading, I couldn't stop. The main character fascinated as he uncovered the truth about his boss' death. I traveled through Lionel Essrog's world happily as I surfed the lyric and compelling prose. I didn't feel like the mystery was that mysterious, but I didn't much care. The characters and words were more interesting than the plot for me.

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lahousewyfe
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See this lady right here? I love her so much that I put down my book with a few pages left when two people were pointing guns at each other.

That's a lot of love.

Gezemice ❤️ 6y
minkyb ❣️ 6y
14 likes2 comments
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lahousewyfe
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A little Motherless Brooklyn in bed before the chaos of preparation begins.

We'll be taking my mother-in-law out for a picnic this lunchtime, and I'll be catching up with my mom later.

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out there! May you get some good reading time in!

asiriusreader Thank you so much! Happy Mother‘s Day! 6y
19 likes2 comments
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Liz_M
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For my current state, I loved the tagged book. A sort of detective novel worth a protagonist suffering from Tourettes. The way he describes his ticks, and people's reactions to them was exactly my type of humour.

For my home state of MN, I would choose Fitzgerald's short story "The Ice Palace".

#WhereintheUniverse, @ofbooksandme

Billypar I love this novel- Lionel Essrog should join Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, and Hercule Poirot as one of the all-time great literary detectives. 6y
ofbooksandme @Liz_M It actually sounds very good. I'll check it out! 6y
Liz_M @ofbooksandme I hope it is your type of humour also! 6y
13 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Libraries_are_cool

"The waking brain races, sampling the world after the world has turned away, touching it everywhere, refusing to settle, to join the collective nod. The Insomniac brain is sort of a conspiracy theorist as well, believing too much in its own paranoiac importance - as though if it were to blink, then doze, the world might be overrun by some encroaching calamity, which it's obsessive musings are somehow finding off."

1 like1 stack add
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mrp27
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#uncannyoctober #cityinthetitle

Brooklyn, my favorite borough.

Smangela A tree grows in Brooklyn 😍😍😍 6y
goodbyefrancie A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my favorites. I got my Litsy name from it! 6y
RealLifeReading 👍👍 6y
mrp27 @goodbyefrancie 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 6y
38 likes4 comments
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GoneFishing

Someday I'd change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

Abby2 Love this book! 7y
20 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Allietaylor16
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...and a dude's shirt. Welcome to rush hour on the red line in Chicago. At least I'm enjoying this book!

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Billypar
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Lionel Essrog's life changes in a #newyorkminute when his gangster-employer / father figure is murdered and our tourettic hero becomes an honest to god private eye to find out who killed him. Lionel is one of my all-time favorite literary characters and this is still my favorite Lethem #rockinmay @Cinfhen

Cinfhen Sounds good!!!! 7y
JazzFeathers It sounds good. Is this a series? 7y
Billypar @JazzFeathers Sadly, it isn't. But... that would be awesome- I would be totally on board with a new Lionel Essrog mystery. 7y
Libraries_are_cool One of my favorite books. Got me back into reading. 6y
Billypar @Libraries_are_cool That's great- I think it's on my short list of favorites too. 6y
13 likes1 stack add5 comments
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Robert3167
Pickpick
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mrp27
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#17rainbowbooks #bluecover

Is it just my shelves or are there tons of blue covers out there? So many! This is just a few.

mrp27 @MrBook Thanks! 7y
writerlibrarian Love love Motherless Brooklyn. ❤️ 7y
howjessicareads SO MANY. I had tons! 7y
24 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Britafish
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Having a fantastic Sunday at the BK Book Festival! #bkloveslitsy

MrBook 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 8y
33 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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CAGirlReading
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The distance between great music and great literature is never too far...

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CAGirlReading
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Just started this one...murder, the mob and a protagonist with Tourette's...sounds fascinating 📖

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Orbeck33
Pickpick

Should be required reading for all New Yorkers.

folanm My favourite book of all time. An absolute must read. 8y
5 likes1 stack add1 comment
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todd
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Pickpick

One of the more innovative crime, who-dun-it novels I've read. If all books were this entertaining I'd wear my eyes out. Thanks to lovely wife for the recommendation.

Connie Washington street! 🌉 8y
Sankster Loved the main character in this one 8y
thepaulhoa An attempt at increasing #litfluence and #husbandfluence. Nice! 8y
9 likes5 stack adds3 comments