topaz

I just want to make sure everyone understands that I was proud to be from Brooklyn before Jonathan Lethem made it cool. Got it? Okay. Thanks.

Speaking of Jonathan Lethem, I should thank

dr_memory for making sure I read Fortress of Solitude. Lethem grew up in Cobble Hill a few blocks from where I lived. (Indeed, my mother knew his parents, at least in passing.) This book, without a doubt, captures the experience of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s better than anything else I have read. Reading it on an icy subway car in Cambridge last February, I could almost smell the heat coming up from the asphalt on Pacific Street in August. It was just that close.

As a book, though, I have to say that it overreached a lot. It made me want to go back and reread Motherless Brooklyn, one of the best books I have read in years. It still brings me up short of breath just to think of some of the writing. (

annaoj, did you ever get around to reading this one? Do I need to send you a copy?) The rumors are apparently true that he sold the film rights for Motherless Brooklyn to Edward Norton. I absolutely can't wait to see how that turns out.