From the bestselling and award-winning author of The Fortress of
Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn comes a sweeping story of community,
crime, and gentrification, tracing over fifty years of life in one
Brooklyn neighborhood.
"A blistering book. A love story. Social commentary. History. Protest
novel. And mystery joins the whole together: is the crime 'time'? Or the
almighty dollar? I got a great laugh from it too. Every city deserves a
book like this." -- Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon and Let the
Great World Spin
On the streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual goes down: the dance.
Money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. The promise
of violence lies everywhere, a currency itself. For these children,
Black, brown, and white, the street is a stage in shadow. And in the
wings hide the other players: parents; cops; renovators; landlords;
those who write the headlines, the histories, and laws; those who award
this neighborhood its name.
The rules appear obvious at first. But in memory's prism, criminals and
victims may seem to trade places. The voices of the past may seem to
rise and gather as if in harmony, then make war with one another. A
street may seem to crack open and reveal what lies behind its glimmering
facade. None who lived through it are ever permitted to forget.
Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime
Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his
powers. Jonathan Lethem, "one of America's greatest storytellers"
(Washington Post), has crafted an epic interrogation of how we fashion
stories to contain the uncontainable: our remorse at the world we've
made.
