'Maufishful,' said Gilbert Coney in response to my outburst, not even turning his head. But that itch is soon a torrent behind a straining dam. The urge to shout in the church, the nursery, the crowded movie house. My words begin plucking at threads nervously, seeking purchase, a weak point, a vulnerable ear. Reality needs a prick here and there, the carpet needs a flaw.

Only-here's the rub-when they find too much perfection, when the surface is already buffed smooth, the ducks already orderly, the old ladies complacent, then my littleĪrmy rebels, breaks into the stores. Everywhere they're smoothing down imperfections, putting hairs in place, putting ducks in a row, replacing divots. They're an invisible army on a peacekeeping mission, a peaceable horde. The cornucopia of my brain to course over the surface of the world, tickling reality like fingers on piano keys. (If I were a Dick Tracy villain, I'd have to be Mumbles.) In this diminished form the words rush out of The noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks empty of breath and tone. My mouth won't quit, though mostly I whisper or subvocalize like I'm reading aloud, my Adam's apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, I'm a carnival barker, an auctioneer, a downtown performance artist, a speaker in tongues, a senator drunk on filibuster. Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.Context is everything. 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. 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. 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.

Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. 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 the most startling and original ways. Motherless Brooklyn Jonathan Lethem € 17.99 If not in stock, the expected delivery time to our store for this item will be 3-5 working days.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem