Lethem Revisits Brooklyn’s Past in ‘Brooklyn Crime⁢ Novel’

Jonathan Lethem,despite a diverse ⁢body of work spanning numerous locales,remains largely associated with his Brooklyn-centric novels such as⁢ Brooklyn without⁢ Mother and The Fortress of Solitude. These, along with The Gardens of​ Dissidents, established him​ as a chronicler—both elegiac and irreverent—of a chaotic, multi-ethnic Brooklyn increasingly‌ lost ‍to gentrification.

Nostalgia and Change in​ Gowanus

The Fortress of solitude, a semi-autobiographical work, saw Lethem reconstruct his childhood neighborhood of Gowanus (later Boerum hill).⁣ He portrayed the daily life ⁣of the protagonist​ with a⁢ poignant melancholy, viewing the past as an irretrievable world. The Brooklyn ⁣depicted is noisy and neglected, unknowingly foreshadowing the gentrification spearheaded, in ‌part, by the protagonist’s parents and their utopian ‍community ideals.

Replete with literary allusions—ranging from Ray ​Bradbury’s enchanting tone in Dandelion Wine (originally published ‍as People of Autumn) to ‌the⁤ classic pairings of⁤ Jim and ‌Huck‌ in Adventures of⁤ Huckleberry Finn and Ishmael and ⁣Queequeg in Moby⁣ Dick—The Fortress of Solitude celebrates street ‌culture. it ⁣captures the language, music, chatter,‍ and urban legends that permeate the ​neighborhood, illustrating the protagonists’⁢ daily negotiations as an intertwining of bodily⁢ rhythms and the⁢ city’s pulse.

‘Brooklyn Crime Novel‘: A New Investigation

Now, two decades later, Lethem ⁢returns⁢ to ‌similar territory in brooklyn ⁤Crime Novel, recently published. The title itself subverts expectations, defying easy literary categorization. The work, ⁢while termed ⁤a novel, functions more as an exploration of brooklyn from the 1970s onward, focusing on it’s pervasive petty crime and the larger “crime” of gentrification.

Lethem, ⁢aiming to depict “topicality in its rawest form,” avoids excessive detail, even concerning his characters. He ‍describes them as “figures of ‍a hieroglyph” he ​is analyzing, presented through 124 vignettes arranged non-chronologically. Critical labels such as “Fitty Memoir,” “sociological investigation,”‍ or “epic of gentrification”‍ don’t⁢ fully capture the work’s essence. Lethem intends the book to represent “a sort of topicality from tabloid,” immersing readers in a‍ sequence of experiences and contexts radically different⁢ from present-day reality.

impersonal ‍Narration and Collective Experience

The novel lacks a central‌ protagonist or episode. Rather, characters and themes intertwine and resurface throughout the investigation, which lethem conducts impersonally. He eschews both “pictorial ​effects” and the ​specialized lexicon of ​”forgotten street games,” attempting to avoid the “slime of nostalgia.”

The​ narrator of Brooklyn Crime Novel positions himself on the ​periphery, allowing the neighborhood to speak for itself with both ​bravado and sincerity: “Blacks, mules, whites, boys, girls. Those who remember and those who forget. They are part of this group. I love them too much to say more.”

Short chapters often indicate ⁤the ⁣year in which events​ occur, sometiems presenting multiple ‌dates to suggest the persistence of certain elements‍ and the presence of liminal temporal spaces that ⁤transcend chronological duration. Characters are ⁣often nameless or known by‍ nicknames. The narrator, ⁤who leads the investigation, identifies himself as “a boy from Dean Street.” He rarely ⁣uses the ‌first-person singular, opting‍ instead for a plural viewpoint that highlights collective rituals, humiliations, and defeats conveyed through‍ the language ​of bodies in space.

Crime as a Unifying Force

Crime—ranging from petty theft to kidnapping, aggression, gentrification, and real ⁤estate‌ scams—unites the narratives, casting characters ‌as both victims and⁤ perpetrators. ​A boy robbed in the street later shoplifts a book; a bully exacts revenge by stabbing his “nemesis.” The omnipresence of crime manifests⁤ in what Lethem ‌calls “the dance”—the aggression of ‍white boys ⁣by their Black peers to steal⁤ money,⁣ toys, or bus ⁣passes. The narrator describes these as ritual transactions, metropolitan choreographies in which bodies establish a peculiar ⁢intimacy, often ⁢leading⁢ to role reversals. The attacker,Black,appropriates what belongs to the white boy,who,in ‍turn,experiences guilt for belonging to the world of “brownstoners”—those who renovate homes,displacing long-term tenants of color.

Many of the new residents had previously fought for ​the rights of ​African ‌Americans who⁤ were now ⁤being displaced. These displaced residents, exiled to⁢ public housing, view the newcomers with contempt. The parents​ of children who⁣ endure daily attacks instruct them ‌not ⁣to react, to justify, leaving⁢ them to navigate the streets ‌alone, protected ⁤only by‌ a Black boy who teaches them the fundamental moves in the “theater of the hard boiled.”

A ‘Backstage’ View and Metanarrative Crime

In ⁤some respects,Brooklyn Crime Novel functions as a powerful “backstage” ​view ⁣of The fortress of​ Solitude. However, here, Lethem discards sentimentality and “the rhetoric of memory,” presenting⁢ “things ⁣swallowed by the street” in their rawest form. His self-deprecating humor leads ⁣him to identify with a‌ novelist performing “a Dickensian operation” on Brooklyn’s reality: “He agglomerated many ⁤different white kids in the profile ⁢of a single person…we were the legislators everywhere in its pages,and at⁢ the same time nowadays,” because he “grabbed all those magnificent puzzles.”

The ultimate crime, therefore, becomes metanarrative. Lethem suggests that his‌ depiction ‌of crimes ⁢serves as a “linguistic frame” ‌upon which ‍”the sense of⁢ an immense ​loss, the junk of⁤ the past” is suspended.