I Haven’t Read You Yet
I listened to an excellent interview with Jonathan Lethem about his novel, You Don’t Love Me Yet, last night. The interview is podcast (is that a verb?) by KCRW’s Book Worm guy, the most depressed, yet brilliant book interviewer dude around. For starters, the interview settles a discussion that we had in the comments some time ago: the picture on the cover is Lethem. I also just found out that the title comes from a Roky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators) song. One more mark in the “+” column. I haven’t read this one yet, even though I love Lethem as a general rule. I may have to pick this one up, finally, in paperback.
July 24, 2007 1:00 pm 
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By Nitro Nicole, July 24, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Mr. Nitro read it and was very disappointed. He just didn’t think it was that good. It’s moved to the bottom of my pile.
By russ, July 24, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
It’s a rock book, with a few dogear-able pages. The “monster eyes” chapter was (little known fact, and spoiler!) a short-story in A Public Space or Paris Review or A Paris Space For Public Review or one of those.
By russ, July 24, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
oh, also: best post title of the year thus far
By thinkulous, July 25, 2007 @ 6:56 pm
I, too, am a Lethem fan, though haven’t loved his recent stuff as much as gems from earlier on, like Motherless Brooklyn and masterful if slighly depressing Fortress of Solitude.
Trivial claim to fame: I went to high school with Lethem in the 70′s/80′s. We even shared a couple of classes. He was a fabulous visual artist, by the way.
Though I liked MB a little more, FoS captures the zeitgeist of growing up in’70s New York City with artsy parents and a melting pot neighborhood (as I did, too) in a pitch-perfect way.
By DJ Cayenne, July 25, 2007 @ 11:57 pm
Think: I loved Motherless and Fortress. He does seem to be mailing it in. Kick him at the next reunion.