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Dissident Gardens (2013)

by Jonathan Lethem(Favorite Author)

3.26 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0224093959 (ISBN13: 9780224093958)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Jonathan Cape

series

Corpus

review 1: Enjoyed Lethem's use of language and his many well-drawn characters. Sometimes the complex structure of the novel, going back and forth in time and involving many characters, interfered with the nuanced themes of this engaging work. The hipster ironic detachment of Lethem's observations of the quirks and flaws of human nature paired with his superb understanding of a number of social movements drove the narrative. I was particularly engaged by his theme of the inextricable connection between memory and identity.
review 2: The energy of the writing in the first part of the book as Rose and the Sunnyside Gardens’ communists are introduced is almost poetic. Sexy Rose dominates as a decision maker even when she is being ostracized. There’s a love/hate relation... moreship with people drawn to her oversized personality. Her daughter Miriam has to get out of the Rose filled apartment as the story shifts to her life and the life of her folk singing Irish boyfriend whose softer character could never compete with Miriam or her mother. Miriam is an activist whereas Rose was a talker, a back room manipulator through the McCarthy (barely mentioned) era in the diminishing world of American communism. Miriam’s son Sergius and the son of Rose’s black policeman lover; the oversized gay professor Cicero, round out the book. Rose and Miriam figure large in Cicero’s life and he’s there for Rose’s declining years. Lethem goes a bit off the deep end with the bizarre cameo introduction of an Archie Bunkerlike character into Rose’s confused life just prior to her ending up in a nursing home. This may fit within aging disorientation but it seemed more of a troubled dream sidebar unnecessarily shoehorned into the waning chapters. Overall the lucid, energetic writing carry the book and the complex interrelationships with Rose at the dominant center make it work. less

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