A review by sireno8
The Disappointment Artist: Essays by Jonathan Lethem

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!