Motherless Brooklyn

I enjoyed this character-driven thriller so much.

The mystery itself was nothing special; crooks being crooks to each other.

But Lionel Essog's narration, watching him work things out, tell us his story, and struggle with his condition very compelling.

It was something to see the way other characters reacted to his moments, his quirks and outburst. Most people are annoyed or repulsed. It was odd how few people had any empathy. I know Brooklyn's a tough place, but damn, I do live in Queens. His issues in participating in the accepted way in most social interactions caused other people to underestimate.

He was a very intelligent and thoughtful character.

I really enjoyed this book. I like how the story takes a couple turns. The book is engaging from the beginning. Lionel has Tourette syndrome and explains the reason for many of his tics. I want to see movie now.

Unique perspective, story gets boring in the last 100 pages.
Mystery isn't that great.

Loved it. The voice is unique, funny and tragic, and now I'm hoping the author's other books are as enjoyable.

Really enjoyed this book and especially liked the tourettes sufferer's perspective.

The end of the book was good, but felt a little lazy; i.e. having the resolved events of the book handed to me, rather than being left with enough information throughout the book to draw my own conclusions.

I listened to Motherless Brooklyn in audio form, and I highly recommend you do the same. I have a feeling my rating may have been a little less if I had read it in book form. Although I wouldn't recommend listening to it in a public place. (Luckily for me, I'm all alone in the office on the weekends.)
This is the sort of mob-crime-mystery story that most people have read or at least watched in movie form at some point, but with a twist. The narrator and main character has Tourette's and OCD.
The potential for this portrayal to be problematic is high, of course, but I was pleasantly surprised. The author manages to make the reader/listener sympathetic to the character without making him pitiable. The story itself kept me hooked despite it's slight predictability simply because the narrator was so damn interesting.
Loved it.

I didn't like this one as much as Gun with Occasional Music, and plot-wise it's a two-star, I think, but there are moments of genius that bump it way up, like the wonderful sex scene involving a curious woman and her tourette's-having partner, who is mirroring her hands on his body as a tic, but also as a loving touch. Lethem, of course, describes it better than I can.

interesting book. a detective novel with Tourette's as the twist. Novel is in the first person. Narrator has Tourette's Syndrome. Not sure how accurate the description is of how the detective experiences the disease.

Sure, why not? Completely works as both pure noir and a modern-day recontextualisation of the same. And it sticks the landing, and sometimes even otherwise-great detective novels can't quite manage that.

Hmm. This was certainly an engaging, fast read. I enjoyed Lionel's narration–his Tourette's Syndrome provided some interesting phrases, even as I wondered about how problematic the use of Tourette's as both a literal characteristic as well as a metaphor might be. Ultimately, noir detective fiction just is not my preferred genre, but this was an entertaining example of it.