elpanek's review
5.0
If Reviews-of-pop-culture-objects-as-autobiography qualifies as a genre, Letham is one of the masters of that genre. This melding of liner notes and personal anecdotes has popped up in his novels; The Disappointment Artist strips away the pretense of plot and character. Rather than explain why a particular movie (2001), artist (The Talking Heads), or song ("Shine On You Crazy Diamond") is great, or what the work Means, Letham analyzes his relationship with the works and artists. Whereas someone like Chuck Klosterman may offer insight and entertainment by revealing the ways in which culture speaks through pop, Letham works in a more intimate, confessional style. This would come across as solipsistic and/or masturbatory if the writing weren't funny, erudite, and original. I came away from the book with a better understanding of my own intense feelings for particular songs, artists, and movies (as well as a desire to listen to "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" again).
colin_cox's review
5.0
Near the end of The Disappointment Artist, Jonathan Lethem describes what it means to be an artist that underwhelms. When writing about seminal figures such as Stanley Kubrick, Don DeLillo, and Jean-Luc Godard, he explains, "It was as though in their coolness these artists had sensed my oversized needs and turned away, flinched from what I'd asked them to feel on my behalf. I blamed them, anyway. My declaring a writer or musician or director my favorite, it seemed, contained a kind of suicide pact for my enthusiasm. The disappointment artist was me" (142). Lethem articulates several interesting ideas about the risks of artistic creation and the reception of said creation. Lethem seemingly wants or needs the artist of his admiration to "feel" what their art provokes him into feeling.
This is precisely the problem. Paradoxically enough, by creating art that "stirred" him, these artists also immunized themselves from feeling what Lethem feels. By refusing to feel, the artists contradict what Lethem conceptualizes the artist to be. Lethem registers his disappointment earlier on page 142 by writing, "The artists who'd seemed to promise the most were the ones who'd created art that stirred me while seeming to absent themselves from emotional risk" (142). As this collection of essays illustrates, it is the emotional risk, not the conceptual risk that matters most. To a frustrating degree, the Kubricks and Godards of the world fail because they refuse to engage with the emotion of their art.
To Lethem's credit, he does not shrink from emotional engagement the way some artists do. He writes persuasively and with unapologetic pathos about his mother's premature death and his fraught but ultimately amicable relationship with his father.
It should be clear at this point that The Disappointment Artist is preoccupied with fandom and reception. The first essay, "Defending The Searchers," is a whimsical exposition on his ambivalent relationship with the deeply problematic Western, The Searchers. Like many of the essays in The Disappointment Artist, "Defending The Searchers" is about how fans perpetually overestimate the quality of a particular piece of art, only to then over-compensate once they course-correct. Therefore, fandom is an exercise in weathering the tides of shifting sensibilities, whether those shifting sensibilities are cultural, personal, or both. This suggests that fandom is flux, an endeavor of ever-changing recalibrations where we realize we have asked too much of the art we adore. While this is not a new idea, Lethem's direct and playful approach makes this collection utterly invaluable.
This is precisely the problem. Paradoxically enough, by creating art that "stirred" him, these artists also immunized themselves from feeling what Lethem feels. By refusing to feel, the artists contradict what Lethem conceptualizes the artist to be. Lethem registers his disappointment earlier on page 142 by writing, "The artists who'd seemed to promise the most were the ones who'd created art that stirred me while seeming to absent themselves from emotional risk" (142). As this collection of essays illustrates, it is the emotional risk, not the conceptual risk that matters most. To a frustrating degree, the Kubricks and Godards of the world fail because they refuse to engage with the emotion of their art.
To Lethem's credit, he does not shrink from emotional engagement the way some artists do. He writes persuasively and with unapologetic pathos about his mother's premature death and his fraught but ultimately amicable relationship with his father.
It should be clear at this point that The Disappointment Artist is preoccupied with fandom and reception. The first essay, "Defending The Searchers," is a whimsical exposition on his ambivalent relationship with the deeply problematic Western, The Searchers. Like many of the essays in The Disappointment Artist, "Defending The Searchers" is about how fans perpetually overestimate the quality of a particular piece of art, only to then over-compensate once they course-correct. Therefore, fandom is an exercise in weathering the tides of shifting sensibilities, whether those shifting sensibilities are cultural, personal, or both. This suggests that fandom is flux, an endeavor of ever-changing recalibrations where we realize we have asked too much of the art we adore. While this is not a new idea, Lethem's direct and playful approach makes this collection utterly invaluable.
sireno8's review
4.0
I'd never read any Jonathan Lethem but had heard great things about him. Now I see why. This was a great way to test the waters and I'm now looking forward to reading his longer work. Clearly the man is really really smart but in an entertaining and almost self-effacing way. He seems like someone you'd be happy to get into a lively arguement about an obsure movie with. He melds a number of different genres -- memoir, essay, lit and film crit -- into one here and pulls them all off by doing them in one big lump. The tone is almost breezy and genuinely honest. The book is informative touching and quotable. The essay give you everything in smallish digestable doses. Well done!
shewantsthediction's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
3.0
I listened to the audiobook read by the author. While I don't think every single essay was included, his reading was surprisingly rousing. He's a talented writer and his essays are often moving, but I almost DNFed several times at the way he misuses "autism" and "autistic" as a description. I know it was published in 2005 so saying stuff like that wasn't really scrutinized back then, but I still winced every time.
I was just off the heels of finishing his strange sci-fi coming-of-age, Girl in Landscape, so it was cool to read about his influences (Star Wars, The Searchers, Philip K. Dick, Talking Heads, etc.) and how his upbringing - specifically his mother's early death - shaped his work. I could relate so hard to the way he talked about being obsessive and trying to escape into art. His description of his father painting in his studio was one of the most beautiful moments in the book, with such a rhythm and momentum you could physically feel his love.
This collection also made me wonder if he's bisexual. (Which would be cool.)
I was just off the heels of finishing his strange sci-fi coming-of-age, Girl in Landscape, so it was cool to read about his influences (Star Wars, The Searchers, Philip K. Dick, Talking Heads, etc.) and how his upbringing - specifically his mother's early death - shaped his work. I could relate so hard to the way he talked about being obsessive and trying to escape into art. His description of his father painting in his studio was one of the most beautiful moments in the book, with such a rhythm and momentum you could physically feel his love.
This collection also made me wonder if he's bisexual. (Which would be cool.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
anatomydetective's review
1.0
Slogging through this incredibly short book made me wonder if perhaps my problem with [b:Motherless Brooklyn|328854|Motherless Brooklyn|Jonathan Lethem|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348254729s/328854.jpg|1971553] is not that I always tried to read it at a time when my life was too easily disrupted. Maybe I just don't like Lethem's writing when he's not writing fiction. Generally when I read a good piece of creative nonfiction, it can make me interested in a subject I was actively disinterested in, not to mention those I'd never known about or considered. The essays in The Disappointment Artist managed to make me *less* interested in topics I was quite interested in, as well as putting me off a few authors I'd never heard of and cementing my conclusion that I don't want to read much [a:Philip K Dick|7781992|Philip K Dick|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png]. Disappointment indeed, especially since I really enjoy Lethem's fiction.
kathleenish's review
3.0
Perhaps the best page is page 10, where Lethem wonders if he will ever get to watch The Searchers without yelling at someone.
jankjickjunk's review
5.0
I have loved everything I've read by Jonathan Lethem. I love him even more after reading "The Disappointment Artist". I don't think that Lethem is the greatest writer of all time, but I relate to his work more than I relate to any other writer.
sarahscire's review
4.0
Quick and fascinating read (especially if you have read Lethem's fiction). Fortunately for the reader, it comes off as more 'obsession' than 'inspiration', the latter of which can seem overly self-indulgent. My favorite was probably the title essay but the boys in my life adored the sections more concerned with Star Wars and Phillip K. Dick.