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February 14, 2006 3:15 PM

MacArthur Award winning novelist Jonathan Lethem chats with cartoon art and graphic genius Gary Panter about lots of stuff , then blogs about music, ducks and chickens.
posted by yakcat01 (12 comments total)

I just finished Lethem's collection of stories, "The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye," and truly loved all of it. Here's a link to a great short story of his in the New Yorker, "Super Goat Man."
posted by billysumday at 3:26 PM on February 14, 2006

Im a big fan of his work as well, so thanks for the link.

His site has a ton of uncollected writings in the "glove compartment" section, too.
posted by yakcat01 at 3:30 PM on February 14, 2006

Yeah, been a fan of Lethem's since Gun With Occasional Music. Pretty much all of his stuff rocks.
posted by brevator at 3:36 PM on February 14, 2006

I love Lethem. His early work was great "genre" fiction that completely exploded whatever form it was supposed to be in, without coming across like an aesthetic exercise. I was disappointed with his collection of short stories, but The Fortress of Solitude is one of the best books written in the last couple of years. Of the coterie of new "hip" authors, he seems to have the most staying power. Thanks for the links!
posted by Falconetti at 3:48 PM on February 14, 2006

Lethem is indeed great, but I'm not sure what Falconetti means about his early stuff exploding the genres they were written in. Good stuff? Absolutely. Genre-busting? Not so much.
posted by Justinian at 4:10 PM on February 14, 2006

Its just adulation from a big fan.
posted by Falconetti at 5:17 PM on February 14, 2006

His article "Beards" in the New Yorker was pretty fantastic. From "The Dissapointment Artist" I think.
posted by vronsky at 5:32 PM on February 14, 2006

Justinian, I think I get what Falconetti means. Gun, As She Climbed Across the Table, Girl in Landscape, they all settle you very quickly into a solid genre, which by the end of the book has evolved into something bizarre, unique and unforeseen. I don't know if it's genre-busting per se, but certainly expectation-busting.

Anyway, thanks for the post, yakcat01.
posted by soyjoy at 7:49 PM on February 14, 2006

I'll agree with that, soyjoy. Gun, in particular, didn't play out at all like I expected. Who would have expected a creepy dystopia at the start of that book?

Thanks, yakcat.
posted by Justinian at 8:27 PM on February 14, 2006

My current favorite short story is Lethem's The Glasses, from Men and Cartoons. There's a good reading by Danny Hoch available here (Salon.com).

Great post; thanks for the links.
posted by j9ac9k at 11:47 PM on February 14, 2006

Another Lethem fan here, but what's with the pretentious title?
posted by mkultra at 5:07 AM on February 15, 2006

Yes - Lethem is great, but I wouldn't have even seen this title in the feed if I wasn't obsessed with cat butts.
posted by freebird at 11:51 AM on February 15, 2006