Re: RARA-AVIS: Lethem short fiction: Smith corrects

From: Hugh Lessig ( hlessig@earthlink.net)
Date: 12 Jul 2001


Is THE WALL OF THE SKY, THE WALL OF THE EYE considered HB? Given Lethem's evolution, I guess it could be just about anything, couldn't it?

As for Motherless Brooklyn, I found the language addictive. After reading the first five pages, I wasn't sure I could finish it. "This kid's annoying," I'm thinking. Then I began to anticipate those machine-gun bursts of conversation, then I began to look forward to it.

It is fun to see a genre turned on its head every once in a while. I'm not sure I could read five books in a row like it. Then again, it made me pick up GUNS . . .

----------
>From: Todd Mason < Todd.Mason@tvguide.com>
>To: "' rara-avis@icomm.ca'" < rara-avis@icomm.ca>
>Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: Lethem short fiction: Smith corrects
>Date: Wed, Jul 11, 2001, 4:01 PM
>

> Neil, you are correct. Sorry, Hugh. The collection is THE WALL OF THE SKY,
> THE WALL OF THE EYE, and is in print. AMNESIA MOON also a novel. He's been
> a busy guy.
>
> And my lack of enthusiasm for the cult of Dave Eggers has kept me away from
> the McSweeney's publication so far, but obviously I have some books to pick
> up. TM
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: a.n.smith [mailto: ansmith@netdoor.com]
>
>> AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE,
>> I've seen none of his short fiction.
>> > Has Lethem published a collection?
>
>
> AS SHE CLIMBED... was a novel. I think the collection is called AMNESIA
> MOON. He also edited a recent book of amnesia stories, which I think is out
> on Vintage Crime, although I've never seen a copy. He's an interesting
> case--started with sf magazines, then just started deconstructing
> genres, from sf to speculative to the campus comedy (AS SHE CLIMBED...)
> to hardboiled to westerns (mixing and matching as he goes). But he has
> recently decided to try placing things with more literary magazines.
> McSweeney's published a novella of his in hardback. It costs ten books,
> looks nice.
>
> I still think the most impressive thing about MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN is its
> dismantling of a typical detective's hard-boiled language through the
> Tourette's Syndrome narrator. Like that joke early on in the book that
> won't get out of Lionel's brain, just keeps circling, mutating, growing in
> different directions.
> --
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