Acton reviewed The fortress of solitude : a novel by Jonathan Lethem
Review of 'The fortress of solitude : a novel' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
For some reason, this book sat on my shelf for several years. I'd acquired it, then never got around to it, then completely forgot about it. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect, so I simply started reading.
The title is an allusion to Superman's fortress of solitude, which for protagonist Dylan Ebdus is Dean St. in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The time period of this tale contributed to my fascination and enjoyment, since Dylan was growing up when I did. His environment, however, was completely different. Watching Dylan negotiate a familiar time period and pop culture from such a foreign perspective kept me absorbed.
Dylan's complex friendship with another neighborhood boy, Mingus Rude, is another enticing plot line. Mingus and Dylan are both growing up without their mothers and both only loosely supervised by their fathers. And yet, they are so different. Mingus the graffiti …
For some reason, this book sat on my shelf for several years. I'd acquired it, then never got around to it, then completely forgot about it. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect, so I simply started reading.
The title is an allusion to Superman's fortress of solitude, which for protagonist Dylan Ebdus is Dean St. in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The time period of this tale contributed to my fascination and enjoyment, since Dylan was growing up when I did. His environment, however, was completely different. Watching Dylan negotiate a familiar time period and pop culture from such a foreign perspective kept me absorbed.
Dylan's complex friendship with another neighborhood boy, Mingus Rude, is another enticing plot line. Mingus and Dylan are both growing up without their mothers and both only loosely supervised by their fathers. And yet, they are so different. Mingus the graffiti artist is "Dose," which both he and Dylan paint everywhere, tagging, their way of expressing their existence in such a big city. Later, Dylan meets a homeless man who seems to fly, landing on the ground from three floors up. When he gives Dylan his magic ring, he and Mingus create the superhero Aeroman, but it's Mingus who does all the flying.
The ring, with its special properties, jolted me out of a story that seemed mostly real. Am I, the reader, really to believe that Mingus was flying? Yes, and during the second part of the book, it becomes clear that for Dylan, the ring is a cloaking device. This should not be surprising, since this is what Dylan always wanted to be in Gowanus: invisible. However, there is a reality check: flying and invisibility do not solve their problems.
I found this book a delight to read because I had no idea what to expect next, and it made me care. The Fortress of Solitude is a most intriguing coming of age story that I will be thinking about for some time.