Jonathan Letham Bookmark

BOOKS
Claremont COURIER/Friday, February 12, 2016
onathan Lethem isnt a one-book-ata-time kind of guy. I usually get

into many overlapping books, because Im always doing different kinds of
reading simultaneously, he explained.
Jonathan Lethem
Mr. Lethem, author of books like Motherless

Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, is a professor at Pomona College. He teaches classes like The
Impossible Novel, which he characterizes as a fun,
spirited course.
He generally rereads whatever he assigns to the students. This time around, he is nose-deep in The Man
Without Qualities by Robert Musil.
Its a novel in three books that, despite being unfinished, is 1700 pages. Musil was an Austrian author
and is generally classed with Modernist masters like
James Joyce and Marcel Proust. Hes read far less,
however, and rarely studied, according to Mr. Lethem.
The book, which was originally written in German,
is set in Austria in 1913, on the brink of World War I.
Mr. Lethem said the book, which centers on a protagonist who is an idle, intellectual dilettante, is concerned with the conditions of 20th century life.
All of these new innovationsFreudianism, Darwinism, radios, photographyhad transformed so
much about what it means to be human, he explained. The book is about trying to figure out what it
is to be alive at that time. What are you when you can
be anything you want to be, when every avenue is
open?
He admits the book is the definition of daunting.
Still, he and his students find it fascinating reading because its so prescient.
Its almost impossible not to feel [Musil] is describing the pressures of the contemporary situation, in
almost every detail, Mr. Lethem said. You feel hes
talking about the political and social confusion of
mass media, about the Internet, about the Republican
primary. Its a snapshot, but the snapshot still applies.
A list of impossible novels would likely include
David Foster Wallaces Infinite Jest, which has more
than 1000 pages touching on subjects as wide-ranging
as consumer culture, tennis, addiction and US-Canadian political relations.
While Impossible Novel students have not tackled
Infinite Jest, the course itself pays tribute to its author.
Mr. Lethem was hired as Pomona Colleges Roy E.
Disney Chair of Creative Writing in 2010. Wallace,
who died by his own hand at his Claremont home in
2008, became the first person to hold the position in
2002.
One of the reasons I innovated the course was because of the implicit presence of Wallace in the department, Mr. Lethem said.
Other on-the-job reading includes his students
manuscripts. Mr. Lethem says that his students help
keep him on his toes.
Theyre very alert, and they have different frames
of reference, he said. Things they see as prominent
in the cultural cannon, I totally have no idea about.
And there are things I think anyone should know that
are totally opaque to them.
The best-case scenario is that they keep me
young, he continued. At other times, they leave me
feeling quite put out to pasture.
He often has books sent to him by fellow writers, a
recent example being The Fugitives, a book by
Christopher Sorrentino released earlier this year. The
Fugitives falls into one of his favorite genres, that of
the detective novel. While Mr. Lethem enjoyed Mr.
Sorrentinos trademark style of introducing a crime in
an unexpected way, there was still an element of work
involved.
Theres a certain due diligence required. I have to
account for myself, to say what I think about it and offer an explanation, he said of reading books by
friends.
That sense of responsibility is light years away from
Mr. Lethems earliest reading experiences.
When I was a dreamy 12-year-old, reading was

very furtive and selfish and pleasure-based. It was me
going off into a different world, he said.
His father, Richard, was an avant-garde painter and
his mother, Judith, was a political activist. Their house
was stocked with books.
I was reading all sorts of highly inappropriate
thingsFear of Flying by Erica Jong, Tropic of
Cancer by Henry Miller, Dostoevskys House of
Death, he recalled. I read differently than I do now.
When I was a teenager I devoured books, skeletonizing them for the plot. I was so eager to find out what
happened.
When he rereads old favorites like The Hobbit to
his two elementary school-aged sons, he discovers details and nuances he missed the first time around
I remember enjoying the book as a kid, but there
was such a sense of presence and atmosphere because
I was reading it aloud, he said.
Mr. Lethem also enjoys finding new favorites with
his children, as when they read Trendon Lee Stewarts
The Mysterious Benedict Society. The boys lapped
it up, he said.
When he was a kid, Mr. Lethem found Lewis Carrols books about Alices adventures in Wonderland to
be pivotal. Theres something about the language and
the humor that made me aware of the writer behind
the wordsof the power of his language.
Other books that enthralled him as he developed his
writing ambitions were the speculative fiction of
Phillip K. Dick and the detective stories of Raymond
Chandler. They formed the basis of what I do, he
said.
Mr. Dick is best known for authoring dystopian
books like Blade Runner. Mr. Chandler, noted for
books like The Long Goodbye and The Big Sleep,
helped create the archetype of the hard-boiled detective.
Mr. Lethem also appreciates the Lew Archer novels
of Ross McDonald, a contemporary of Chandler. The
authors both created protagonists who, as private eyes,
were able to go into every milieu.
They didnt write exclusively about the criminal
class or the poor or the underworld, Mr. Lethem said.
They cut through social levels, from the middle class
to the wealthy, from businessmen to bohemians and
from artists to drug addicts. They are great social portraitists.
Mr. Lethem finds the most energy in books where
the writers push against genre boundaries. Its a path
he has followed, beginning with his first novel Gun,
With Occasional Music, which is both science fiction
yarn and detective story.
The writer adds that hes as inspired by movies, music, comic books and graphic novels as he is by standard literary works. He cites Daniel Clowes, creator of
the graphic novel Ghost World, and Alison Bechdel,
author of the graphic memoir Fun Home, as among
his favorite comic book writers. The form at that
level is the real thing, he said. Its not kids stuff.
When he chooses a book to read just for kicks, Mr.
Lethem inevitably chooses a novel. And, as is the case
with any working parent, he has to steal time to read.
As my kids get older, exhaustion is the enemy.
Reading is so exciting and trancelike, Ill open a book
and suddenly its the next morning, he said.
Mr. Lethams newest novel A Gamblers Anatomy
will be released this coming October. The story, which
ranges from Berlin to Singapore to the Bay Area, follows the vicissitudes of a professional backgammon
hustler.
J
COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
Author and Pomona College professor Jonathan
Lethem in his office.
Quotable Lethem:
I learned to write fiction the way I learned to

read fictionby skipping the parts that bored me.
Reading and writing are the same thing; its
just ones the more active and the others the more
passive. They flow into each other.
The clouds were still bunched up in the sky like
a gang on a street corner, and it looked to me like
they had the sun pretty effectively intimidated.
I prefer old books and find them more relevant.
I dislike new books. Its like drinking wine thats
not ready.
My heart and the elevator, a plummet inside a
plummet.
Im forever writing around a voidI guess I
dont have to explain to you why that is.
Teenage lifepossibly adult life toois all
about what you want and cant have. And then
about what you receive and misuse.
Nerds are just deep, and neurotic, fans. Needy
fans. Were all nerds, on one subject or another.
Writing is physical for me. I always have the

sense that the words are coming out of my body,
not just my mind.
CLAREMONT IN PRINT/from previous page
He is relishing his latest enterprise.

Because of the nature of the books on offer, you
could spend hours browsing in Mirrored Society. Mr.
Graulty and Mr. Lucas plan to grow their selection,
following their own aesthetic intuition as well as suggestions by customers. However, considering white
space is a virtue in design, the business model does
not include acquiring every title thats out there.
e dont have a typical

bookstore feeling, Ms.
Graulty said. We want
people to come in and flip through
books.
Mirrored Society is located at 206 W. Bonita Ave.
in Claremont, on the second floor of Harvard
Square. Its open Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 to 8 p.m; Fridays and Saturdays
from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sundays from 11 a.m. to
6 p.m. For information, visit mirroredsociety.com
Sarah Torribio
storribio@claremont-courier.com
BOOKMARK
Sarah Torribio
storribio@claremont-courier.com

Jonathan Letham Bookmark

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BOOKS

Claremont COURIER/Friday, February 12, 2016

onathan Lethem isnt a one-book-ata-time kind of guy. I usually get

Mr. Lethem, author of books like Motherless

When I was a dreamy 12-year-old, reading was

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to

Writing is physical for me. I always have the

CLAREMONT IN PRINT/from previous page

He is relishing his latest enterprise.

e dont have a typical

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