Jonathan Lethem facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jonathan Lethem
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Lethem at the 2023 Texas Book Festival
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| Born | Jonathan Allen Lethem February 19, 1964 New York City, U.S. |
| Pen name | Harry Conklin |
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| Period | 1989–present |
| Notable works | Motherless Brooklyn (1999) The Fortress of Solitude (2003) |
| Notable awards | National Book Critics Circle Award, World Fantasy Award |
| Spouse | Shelley Jackson (1987–1997) Julia Rosenberg (2000–2002) Amy Barrett |
| Children | 2 |
Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American writer. He writes novels, essays, and short stories. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, came out in 1994. It mixed science fiction with detective fiction. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, which won an award and became very popular. His 2003 book, The Fortress of Solitude, was a New York Times Best Seller. In 2005, he received a special award called a MacArthur Fellowship. Since 2011, he has taught creative writing at Pomona College.
Contents
Growing Up in Brooklyn
Lethem was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Judith Frank Lethem, was a political activist. His father, Richard Brown Lethem, was an artist. Jonathan was the oldest of three children. His family lived in a commune in Brooklyn.
He had a childhood full of culture and art. He knew a lot about Bob Dylan's music. He watched Star Wars many times when it first came out. He also read all the books by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Lethem later said Dick's work greatly influenced his life and writing.
His parents divorced when he was young. When he was thirteen, his mother died from an illness. He has said this event deeply affected his writing. He explained that his books often have a "missing center," like something has disappeared.
Jonathan wanted to be an artist like his father. He went to the High School of Music & Art in New York. There, he painted and made his own magazine called The Literary Exchange. He also wrote a long novel that was never published.
After high school, Lethem went to Bennington College in Vermont in 1982. He planned to study art. However, he realized he was more interested in writing. He left college after his second year. In 1984, he traveled across the country to Berkeley, California. He described this trip as one of the most memorable things he ever did.
Lethem lived in California for twelve years. He worked in used bookstores and wrote in his free time. He published his first short story in 1989.
Becoming a Published Author
Lethem's first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, came out in 1994. It blended science fiction with detective stories. The book featured talking kangaroos and futuristic ideas. It received a great review in Newsweek magazine. This helped the book become widely successful. Gun, with Occasional Music was nominated for the 1994 Nebula Award. It also won "Best First Novel" in a reader's poll. A film producer bought the movie rights, which allowed Lethem to stop working in bookstores and focus on writing.
His next book was Amnesia Moon (1995). This novel was partly inspired by his cross-country travels. It tells a story about a journey through a strange, future world. In 1996, he published a collection of his early short stories called The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye.
His third novel, As She Climbed Across the Table (1997), followed. It is about a physics researcher who falls in love with something called "Lack." This "Lack" is an artificially created space.
In 1996, Lethem moved back to Brooklyn. His next book, Girl in Landscape, was published after his return. This novel is about a young girl growing up in a new world with aliens. Lethem said the book was influenced by the 1956 Western movie The Searchers.
Mainstream Success
Lethem's next novel was Motherless Brooklyn, published in 1999. It was a detective story. The main character, Lionel Essrog, has Tourette's syndrome and loves language. Lethem said this character was the one he identified with the most.
Motherless Brooklyn won several awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. It was also named book of the year by Esquire. In 1999, actor Edward Norton announced plans to make a movie based on the novel. Norton's film was released in 2019.
The success of Motherless Brooklyn made Lethem well-known. Critics often called him a "genre bender." This meant he mixed different types of writing, like detective stories, science fiction, and personal stories. Lethem felt comfortable mixing genres because his father's art combined real and imagined things naturally.
In the early 2000s, Lethem published more short stories and essays. He also edited two collections of other writers' works. In 2003, he published his "big sprawling" novel, The Fortress of Solitude. This book is partly based on his own life. It tells the story of two friends growing up in Brooklyn in the late 1970s. The Fortress of Solitude was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times. It has been translated into fifteen languages.
His second collection of short stories, Men and Cartoons, came out in 2004. In 2005, his first collection of essays, The Disappointment Artist, was released. On September 20, 2005, Lethem received a MacArthur Fellowship. This is a very important award given to talented people.
Recent Works
In 2006, Lethem wrote an article about Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone magazine. It was a long interview where Lethem shared his thoughts on Dylan's music.
After writing books set in Brooklyn, Lethem decided to write about other places. In 2007, he published You Don't Love Me Yet, a novel about a new rock band. The story follows a band member named Lucinda, who uses words from a complaint line as song lyrics. Lethem said the book was inspired by his own time as a singer in a band.
From 2007 to 2008, Lethem wrote a ten-issue comic book series for Marvel Comics. It was about the character Omega the Unknown.
In 2009, his novel Chronic City was published. It is set in Manhattan and features a group of friends. Lethem said it was influenced by other writers and films like Hitchcock's Vertigo.
In 2007, he wrote an essay called "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism." In this essay, he talked about how artists often use ideas from others. He argued that sharing ideas can be a good thing. This essay was included in his 2011 collection, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc..
Since 2011, Jonathan Lethem has been a professor of creative writing at Pomona College.
His ninth novel, Dissident Gardens, came out in 2013. It is about "American leftists" and their families. Lethem said it was another book about New York City life, set in Queens and Greenwich Village.
In 2015, he released Lucky Alan and Other Stories, his fifth collection of short stories.
Lethem's tenth novel, A Gambler's Anatomy, was published in 2016. It is about a backgammon player who thinks he can see the future. In 2018, he returned to detective novels with The Feral Detective.
His twelfth novel, The Arrest, was published in November 2020. It is a unique story about two siblings and a special car in a post-apocalyptic world.
Lethem also helped write songs for the Lee Ranaldo album Electric Trim in 2017. He wrote the introduction for David Bowman's 2019 novel, Big Bang.
Personal Life
In 1987, Lethem married writer and artist Shelley Jackson. They divorced in 1997. In 2000, he married Julia Rosenberg, a Canadian film executive, but they divorced two years later. As of 2007, Lethem lives in Brooklyn and Berwick, Maine. He lives with his third wife, filmmaker Amy Barrett. He has two sons.
See also
In Spanish: Jonathan Lethem para niños
