Chronic City

Chronic City
Author: Jonathan Lethem 2009 467 pp
My rating: 4*
Started November 3 2009, Finished November 9 2009.

At first, Chronic City came across as something of an update of Bonfire of the Vanities, a study of the lifestyle of Manhattan’s well to do populated by characters with not quite believable names. Then it began to seem vaguely Pynchonesque as characters with utterly absurd names try to go about there business in the midst of a far ranging conspiracy. Finally there were plentiful overtones of Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale and its depiction of a perpetually snowbound city that seems a lot like New York.

While Chronic engrossed and amused -- Lethem’s refractions on our current reality are often quite funny and even insightful -- the book fell a little short of greatness due to its basic plotlessness and characters who are just a little too surreal to engage readers as meaningful reflections of themselves. By comparison, the probable highpoint of Lethem’s oeuvre (so far, as he seems to have even better work ahead of him) 2003’s The Fortress of Solitude, which strongly grounds its characters in a relatable emotional and physical reality, thus instilling novelistic credibility to the magic they partake of.



Names of some of the major characters: Perkus Tooth, Oona Lazlo, Chase Insteadman, Mayor Jules Arnheim, Georgina Hawkmanaji, Richard Abneg

I live in capital’s capital, but I root against the Dow. I feel and instinctive lizard-thrill on those days when it collapses. (65)

I’m truly a vacuum filled by the folks I’m with, and vapidly neutral in their absence. (121)

His self-regard was like a grand pipe organ visible in the air between us, which he played with shameless gusto. (191)

Russ Grinspoon of Grinspoon and Hale. “’The Night Takes Back What You Said’ the act’s early Dylanesque hit and one tolerable song.” (264) [Could be read as Art Garfunkle of Simon and Garfunkle … ‘The Sounds of Silence’ … ]

Who needed computers to simulate worlds? Every person was their own simulator. (267)

Biller knew how to live off the grid, even in a place like Manhattan which was nothing but grid. (343)