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A review by andrewdeyoung
The Disappointment Artist: Essays by Jonathan Lethem
4.5
I love this book. For some, I suspect that the way Lethem obsesses over every book/movie/song/artist that has influenced him may grate, but I totally get what it's like to identify with art to the point of obsession, so I loved it. Plus, this is Lethem we're talking about. Whether he's writing fiction or nonfiction, he wears his cultural and artistic influences on his sleeve.
Being a collection, it has its low points and high points.
High points: the essays about The Searchers, Star Wars, the comics of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, "Lives of the Bohemians," and the coda.
Just OK: essay about the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, and the title essay.
Low points: for me, the Cassavetes essay is practically unreadable if you haven't watched and obsessed over every single Cassavetes film, the way Lethem has (I've only seen Faces). The essay on Philip K. Dick is also strangely unsatisfying. I wish Lethem had really dissected PKD the way he did Kirby & Lee.
Overall, though, I love the collection enough that I'm willing to look past its faults.
Being a collection, it has its low points and high points.
High points: the essays about The Searchers, Star Wars, the comics of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, "Lives of the Bohemians," and the coda.
Just OK: essay about the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, and the title essay.
Low points: for me, the Cassavetes essay is practically unreadable if you haven't watched and obsessed over every single Cassavetes film, the way Lethem has (I've only seen Faces). The essay on Philip K. Dick is also strangely unsatisfying. I wish Lethem had really dissected PKD the way he did Kirby & Lee.
Overall, though, I love the collection enough that I'm willing to look past its faults.