Me and the New York Times

The NYT picks their top ten titles for the year here: http://bit.ly/6RG0Yf

Funny how we both do a sort of list-y review of Lethem's Chronic City but they loved it and I didn't.

Ah well. Great minds sort of think alike while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Thanks NYT. I think this means we're going steady.

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

"How We Got Insipid", indeed.

422 pages, the better part of a month out of my life, lots of characters with silly names and sillier theories, minutiae heaped atop minutiae seemingly for the sake of more minutiae, escaped tigers, stranded astronauts, three-legged dogs, gray fogs, endless dope-smoking, holes in the ground and hiccups. All that work and this was what I got?

This one and that last rock 'n' roll novel of yours; two strikes, Mr. Lethem, though I'm certainly pulling for you.

May I suggest more Lionel Essrogs and fewer Chase Insteadmans or perhaps a return to gun-wielding kangaroos. I'll be waiting.