5/6
The Book: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
ISBN: 0-375-72488-5
Suggested By: Dan Solomon
Where: Home
When: 2:30-3:10P
Music: None
Company: The Family
Pages: 281-336 (55)
The Lead In: Some writers are really good at description, some are really good with dialogue, some are really good in character development. Lethem has written a pretty solid book up to this point, but when he has to insert a set dialogue between a woman and a man, he does a stinker of a job. Not impressed at all. pg 309-318. Horrible.
The 411 on the 55: Dylan decides to get in on Mingus’ drug deal. As he sits down to invest his money, Mingus’ grandfather, who has disapproved of his son’s lifestyle, barges in with a gun, eventually leading to Mingus blasting his own grandfather.
After this gripping climax, there is a piece of music writing done by Dylan (the fictional character, of course), done for liner notes in a box set. He discusses Barrett Rude Jr. (Mingus’ dad) and his career in soul music.
The next scene is in the 1999, Dylan is living with his girlfriend, a black woman, who accuses him of being unable to get over his childhood. He admits to being depressed but leaves for the airport. He flies to California to pitch a movie idea about a prison soul band in the 60’s The Prisonaires. The movie maker loves the idea.
Line of the Day: “Leave him alone, Gus. Little Dylan can do what he wants. He’s my boy, he’s going to college, damn, I can’t believe how the time goes, can you believe it, Gus? Little Dylan’s taking off to college, the boy can’t get high because he’s keeping his shit together.” pg 286
The Fact on the Fiction: Found a blog that discussed the inspiration for Barrett’s soul band. Oddly enough, while reading through it, I spotted that this guy was in Mission, Tx some time ago. Weird. Interesting though. He says its the Spinners. SteadyBlogging
This is sort of the part of the book where it gets wonky. There are some great moments to come, but you nailed it on the dialogue scene.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. Came across your post when I resorted to google to find my own posts about "Fortress"; specifically this one about putting together a soundtrack for the book, b/c it came up as I was web-surfing today--turns out Lethem himself put together a 2-disc mix: "Long Lost Fortress of Solitude Mix CDs Found, Replicated"
ReplyDeleteInteresting exercise to read 55pp of something different every day. How did you choose those 55pp of "Fortress"? I think the 1st (Brooklyn) half is amazing, but the 2nd (Berkeley) half is a lot more haphazard (though it eventually comes back to Bk).
I've been meaning to reread it, esp since I live in Brooklyn now, but didn't when I first read it.
I do indeed make it down to Mission TX every so often..my parents live there.