Jonathan Lethem on Novel Writing as a Memory Art

Perhaps best known for his novels Motherless Brooklyn (1999), The Fortress of Solitude (2003), and Chronic City (2009)—or, more recently, Brooklyn Crime Novel (2023)—the author, essayist, and cultural critic Jonathan Lethem could be considered the ultimate modern-day Brooklyn bard, even if today he lives in California, where he’s a professor of English and creative writing at Pomona College. His most celebrated books take place in Brooklyn, or in the case of Chronic City, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and across his genre-spanning works of fiction, his narratives capture a profound sense of the rich chaos and wonder to be found in an urban existence. Lethem is also the author of several essay collections, including the newly published Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture (ZE Books), which compiles much of his art writing from over the years written in response to—and often in exchange for—artworks by friends, including Gregory Crewdson, Nan Goldin, and Raymond Pettibon.

On the episode, Lethem discusses his passion for book dedications; the time he spent with James Brown and Bob Dylan, respectively, when profiling them for Rolling Stone in the mid-aughts; how his work is, in part, a way of dealing with and healing from his mother’s death in 1978, at age 36; and why he views his writing as “fundamentally commemorative.”

Special thanks to our Season 10 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Jonathan Lethem

[5:35] Cellophane Bricks

[5:35] High School of Music and Art

[5:35] Motherless Brooklyn

[5:35] The Fortress of Solitude

[5:35] The Disappointment Artist

[7:15] Carmen Fariña

[9:08] The Great Gatsby

[9:08] Brooklyn Crime Novel

[10:59] Lynn Nottage

[13:08] Bennington College

[23:41] The Collapsing Frontier

[23:41] Italo Calvino

[27:37] Dada movement

[27:37] Dissident Gardens

[31:21] Nan Goldin

[34:33] “The Ecstasy of Influence”

[42:32] “Being James Brown: Inside the Private World of the Baddest Man Who Ever Lived”

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