Who Of Us Also Stumbled Past The Work Of Jonathan Lethem Until David Foster Wallace Up And Bid Us Adieu

A really marvelous book of essays titled, THE DISAPPOINTMENT ARTIST, by Jonathan Lethem discovered me by way of my usual antic behavior which consists of this eternally obsessive need for always having in my possession something fresh, something new, and something more than chewable. In my usual literary and musical compulsive meanderings I came across online a Patti Smith video interview conducted by Lethem at I believe Cooper Union commissioned while they were both recently students at Pratt across the river in Brooklyn. I watched the interview on YouTube and enjoyed listening to the rock icon Patti Smith discuss her life fresh on the heals of the recent publication of her well-received memoir I forget the name of now. During the interview Lethem made me want to reconsider reading the Smith book which I had previously rejected as something I did not need in my life. The odds to me still feel pretty high that I won't need to read her memoir anytime soon. I love Patti but I admit I am a little tired of the whole Mapplethorpe/Andy Warhol/CBGB thing. But what I gathered from the chemistry of these two on stage at Cooper Union and the common ground met within the extremely interesting interview was my ever-growing interest in this Jonathan Lethem character. Anybody raised in a commune by hippies in Brooklyn had to be my cup of tea. But why hadn't I heard of him already?

In his first and only book of essays published in 2005 he drops the names of many writers I am enamored with, and he specifically invokes the names DeLillo and Carver, but where was the name of my beloved Lish? That got me even more interested. I wondered had Lethem been a student of Lish's and had a falling out or typically bad experience those prone to not having good feelings for Lish seem to harbor universally? Being the compulsive person I am my search began with a low fever and is currently raised to a high grade pitch as I write these words. Suffice for now to say I can find no record of any Fiction-Writing class-taking by Lethem taught by the great and re-emerging teacher Lish, but I did read of one Lethem-reported Lish Quarterly Magazine rejection of a story Lethem felt he had broken new ground on. But there were no harsh or vindictive words I could find from Lethem on the matter. At least not yet.

I love a good book of essays. They are not easy to find. When I finally discovered the writings of David Foster Wallace it was soon after he had hung himself dead. My stepson lovingly considers my literary, musical, and cinematic needs often so he sent me the now-famous Kenyon College commencement speech Wallace delivered and so many now have made too much of in a negative sense. If you read, or listen, to this speech it sets off a compelling desire to hear more from this man, and as I do with everything, I proceeded to devour him wholeheartedly. Not long after my great full-course meal of DFW I urgently and almost cold-heartedly looked for his replacement. I searched desperately and with great failure. Do yourself a favor and perform your own cross reference of sorts through the book site Amazon.com or google and there will be no lack of writers to choose from who are supposedly similar to DFW. Poppycock. But in my search never did Jonathan Lethem show up among the countless others compared to DFW. Perhaps he, Lethem, shows up now. And any suggested writers I actually did put my money on were nothing short of disappointing when compared to Wallace. I was sadly, almost gravely, convinced there would be no other writer to emerge from the ranks such as a David Foster Wallace sitting there considering lobsters or cruising on the open sea on a giant tourist ship. I ended up doing a complete study of Hunter S. Thompson in order to whet my appetite for well-written journalism and social commentary subject to the high-wire performances I was accustomed to wanting to hear and read. But I am so far past that Amazon-type search engine now I would not care anymore no matter who they suggested to me. But in my past state of mind, in the midst of my heightened compulsive search operation, there was no hint of any Jonathan Lethem being similar to my also-beloved David Foster Wallace. So the eventual link to Lethem had to karmically go through an old rock icon where I am happy to report I discovered my new grist, and my ravaging mill is forever grateful for Patti Smith for delivering him to me.

There are a scant nine essays scattered throughout THE DISAPPOINTMENT ARTIST and all covered in a measly hundred and forty-nine pages. Topics range from great films, music, and literature by artists such as John Wayne, Philip K. Dick, John Cassavetes, and Bob Dylan, and dare I forget the long essay regarding Marvel Comics. The essays all weave through his own personal stories of growing up, Lethem's constant delving into his upbringing by these hippie parents who were artists in their own right, and all the different and unique characters throughout young Lethem's life who put their imprint on him including aunts, friends, his parents' multiple lovers, and young adult men he looked up to during his own coming of age. The book in some ways behaves as if it is a high-flying buzzard in that it always circles around the carcass of his dead mother and the reality of his father as artist, and the fact of his still being alive while his mother is not. Lethem admits in the book he will never get over the death of his mother and to this day relies on the power she provides him in his personal choice for a vocation as a serious and important writer.

The fact that Lethem loved books and collected them from an early age on, that he also loved music and film and spoke of many of the artists I have loved and been disturbed by as well, offered me a connection to him even though I know I have to be at least fifteen years his senior. But it was still satisfying to know there was another person out there like me, of course he being smarter than me, but still as devoted to getting his full measure of literature, art, and music as I have always been driven to get for myself.

Nine essays and not one of them boring or about something that Lethem can't get you interested in at least for your time there being on the page with him. That's not too shabby. I couldn't wait to finish the book, it was one of those god damn page turners, but I found my own tempo slowing near the end in order to savor the last few pages of the last essay titled, The Beards . It was so, so good. Not so unlike the other eight, just it being the last one, and the most intimate, and if I could take a personal stand here and declare something other than what I have been trying to say all along, and that is, Jonathan Lethem is my next living David Foster Wallace and I personally cannot wait to get my hands on his following book of essays. Meanwhile, while I impatiently wait for something probably years still in the making, I will begin to read his other books of which my next in line is a novel titled MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN. Allow me another confession here in that I have already ordered an additional two first edition hardcover Lethem books online and it is hoped they are soon to be whisking themselves to me in order to be queued in the wings for when I get poised for another installment of him.

One interesting side note to this whole connecting affair between DFW and JL. Jonathan Lethem recently accepted the position of Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing at Pomona College, the same position that David Foster Wallace vacated when he hung himself from his porch rafters. The Disney professorship was endowed by Roy E. Disney, a graduate of the Pomona class of 1951. David Foster Wallace held the position from 2002 to 2008. It really is such a small world we live in, isn't it?