About this title: Dylan grows up in a black neighborhood in Brooklyn, the only white boy around. His hippie parents are oblivious, but his troubles in an all-black milieu are eased by his best friend, Mingus Rude, the son of a soul singer. As the boys grow up, Dylan moves away from his roots and goes off to college in Berkeley, while Mingus falls deep into crack ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780786259960ISBN:0786259965
Description: Very Good. Large Print Edition. Book in Very Good Condition with only reasonable wear. Ex-library with usual distinguishments (stamps, sticker on spine, but no card insert). SHIPS W/IN 24 HOURS! FREE INSURANCE on all orders! E-mail notification! Careful, thorough packaging. Fast, personal service. No hassle, full refund return policy! COMBINE SHIPPING-TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER BOOKS/CDs/MOVIES AVAILABLE! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385500692ISBN:0385500696
Description: Good in Good jacket. 75-Y-Add Ex-library. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Stated First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 2003-01-01
ISBN-13:9780385500692ISBN:0385500696
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Description: Acceptable. Corners are a little bent/rounded on cover. Cover has some light wear and tear on the edges. Front cover has crease in bottom corner. Spine has crea. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780375724886ISBN:0375724885
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 528 p. Audience: General/trade. In very good condition, binding intact. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 2003-Hardcover---some shelf-wear-Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Acceptable. 2005-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385500692ISBN:0385500696
Description: New. Absolutely NEW! Clean, crisp, Never read, NO remainder mark. Dust jacket has some shelfwear. Books may have a remainder mark on bottom of text block. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780375724886ISBN:0375724885
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover shows minor wear; pages appear to be unmarked, only faintly tanned, if at all; flyleaf in back, printed with info on author's other books has a taped tear. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385500692ISBN:0385500696
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Stated First Edition; dj has slight wear with small scratches and curling; pages appear to be unmarked; EXCELLENT CONDITION! read more
"This intriguingly covered book had lain on my shelf for longer than I was able to remember who had recommended it to me. Deterred by the blurb on the back, and it's 511 pages, it was only my compulsive tidiness that made me pick it up in the end, and I'm glad I did.
Set in Brooklyn in the early 1970s, Fortress of Solitude tells the story two young friends: Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are united by their absent mothers and distant, but creative, fathers and set apart by their skin colour. Against a backdrop of graffitti and street life they grow up, and grow apart, and yet a magic flying ring somehow unifies them over the years.
Yes, I know it sounds twee, but Lethem pulls it off skillfully, probably since it is based on his own childhood experience (minus the ring, one presumes) and the 511 pages flew by, metaphorically of course.
p.s. It turned out it was Al who recommended it. If anyone wants to borrow, let me know."
"I've been away, sort of. I've spent three weeks in Brooklyn, without leaving home. I've been engrossed in Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, which is about a white boy, Dylan Ebdus, growing up in a black ghetto in the years before Brooklyn became gentrified.
Apart from being white and once being a kid, Dylan's life has nothing in common with mine. I don't deal with gangs of bullying black kids on my way to school every day. My mother didn't abandon me, and my father isn't a reclusive artist. My best friend's dad isn't hasbeen singer turned cokehead. I've never taken hard drugs. I've never broken into a prison, or out of one, or even been in one. There's no point of contact between him and me that I can see, but I've been living his life for three weeks and loving every minute of it.
This total absorption in another world is what makes books better than cinema. Special effects can't hold a candle to a really well written, really long book. It's the ultimate virtual experience. You can live someone else's whole life, not a couple of hours, and you live it from inside their head. And because a book like this can't be read at one sitting, it takes on a life in your head in between readings. True, you need a writer as excellent as Lethem to pull it off. Not many books are as detailed as this one. But when a book is good it wipes the floor with any movie I've ever seen.
So, I've finished the book now and I'll miss Brooklyn. Technically I have been there. A week before 9/11, years before our kids were born, I accompanied S to New York on a business trip. We had dinner and saw a show with one of his customers, who then took us on a tour of Manhattan, which culminated in a drive across the Brooklyn Bridge. We didn't stop, just turned around and came back again."
"I feel like the ending really saved this book for me. I found the beginning interesting, but had a hard time working through the middle. The race relations in this story seemed very nebulous and conflicted; I may be reading too much into it, but it seemed like the author spoke through Dylan, who was continuously coping with or processing his childhood in a predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn. This was a process that never seemed to have a resolution, and I couldn't figure out if this was Lethem's attempt at puzzling out his own demons, or if he meant to send a certain message and just failed with me. Also, memo to Lethem--there is more to my neighborhood than the Brooklyn Detention Center, ok? I know it's tall, but you don't have to bring it up 50 times and ignore every other building surrounding it. Finally, I thought the superhero aspect was very weird until the end of the book. It had a much too gritty and realistic tone to also have the magical realism of the ring. It also invited comparisons (in my mind, at least) to the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which didn't help out this book any."
"The first half of this book is the best thing I've read in years. The stories of Dylan Ebdus growing up in Brooklyn, dealing with racism and graffiti and superpowers, were amazing. I couldn't put the book down. I loved it.
But then the timeline jumps forward into the 90s. Instead of a shy middle-school student, or a punk poseur teenager, Dylan is a whiny rock journalist in 1999. That's not the book I want to read. I don't care about his problems with his girlfriend or efforts to pitch a movie deal. The sudden change in focus, and the switch from 3rd to 1st person, made me feel like I was reading a different book. A much worse book.
Once I got over my disappointment at the change in the second half, and my desire to stop reading entirely, I found it wasn't all bad. There were some flashbacks to Dylan's time in college, which I enjoyed. And the ending was interesting. I'm still giving the book 4 stars because I loved the first half so much, but I'm disappointed by it overall."
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