14 - Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem

Like most detective stories, the revelation at the ending can never quite live up to the tension generated by the narrative prior, and the whole thing sags and collapses like a cut string. That said, I felt like this was one of the more satisfying books of Lethem’s that I’d read, mostly on the strength and inventiveness of the prose. Lethem does an absolutely wonderful job convincingly limning the interior state of his Tourettic protagonist, and the writing, never less than good, at times rises to brilliance. I’m glad that I finally got around to reading this, and it was more than good enough to overwhelm my general distaste for mysteries and crime fiction in general.