Book Review
Motherless Brooklyn
by Jonathan Lethem
Penguin Random House © 1999
Plot Summary:
Lionel Essrog is not a typical detective. His friends call him “freakshow” due to his Tourette’s tics and mannerisms. His OCD tendencies and verbal outbursts leave him alienated from society. He is also an orphan who, along with three others from St. Vincent’s Home for Boys, begins working for a low-level mobster, Frank Minna, from an early age. When he is old enough, h quits high school to start working at Frank’s new venture: a limo service, which serves as a cover Frank’s detective agency. Along with fellow orphans Gilbert, Tony and Danny they make up “Frank’s Boys”.
Frank’s charismatic personality helped them get away with jobs that were not exactly legal. When Frank gets himself into a bind his charisma cannot get him out of, he is tragically killed. Out of fidelity to his mentor, Lionel determines to solve Frank’s murder and restore some order to his chaotic world.
As Lionel investigates, he begins to peel back the layers of secrets which were the catalyst to Frank’s murder and realized he must find the answers to questions from Frank’s past.
My Thoughts:
I read this book because I saw the 2019 movie starring the super talented Edward Norton, Alec Baldwin, Bruce Willis, Bobby Cannavale, Willem Dafoe … You get the idea, it’s an amazing cast! I love classic gumshoe detective stories. Additionally, Tourette’s Syndrome is not a typical characteristic of a lead actor in a Hollywood movie, particularly when that movie is not solely about that illness.
When I read the book, I was quite startled at the stark differences in the book and the movie. Lionel is a detective and an orphan who works for low-level, charismatic Frank Minna along with three other orphans from St. Vincent’s Home for Boys. Frank is murdered, and Frank’s widow skips town to unknown destinations quickly after Frank’s death. Lionel is set on solving Frank’s murder. That is where the story similarities end. (I am going to focus on the book from here.)
The book was written in 1999 and is set in that present day. The book delves deeply into Lionel’s childhood, giving us deeper understanding of Lionel’s Tourette’s and compulsions. It also makes Lionel a more lonely and alienated man living in a society that does not understand him and consistently underestimates him.
As the story unfolds, tension grows between Lionel and the other member’s of “Frank’s Boys”. Lionel doesn’t trust anyone but himself, and he sets about to solve this murder on his own. The investigation takes him throughout New York, and puts him in the position Frank shielded him from: interacting with people and exposing his tics.
The story is well paced and exciting. Lionel is a whip-smart and engaging hero made sympathetic by the compulsions beyond his control. Readers feel his loneliness and isolation, which makes us eager to see him succeed in his quest, as though that victory will give him some relief from that solitude.
I loved this story. I loved the characters, the tension and New York in the late 90s. It was not at all what I expected, but everything I wanted from a true detective novel.