Jonathan Lethem is an American writer known for blending genres in his novels. His mother’s death and upbringing in Brooklyn influence his writing. He has been married three times and has one son. His works include Gun, with Occasional Music, Motherless Brooklyn, and The Fortress of Solitude.
Jonathan Lethem, born Jonathan Allen Lethem in Brooklyn on February 19, 1964, is an American writer. His father, Richard Brown Lethem, is a painter. Jonathan’s mother, Judith Lethem, who died of a brain tumor when he was thirteen, was a political activist. As an undergraduate at Bennington College in Vermont, Lethem trained to be an artist. However, midway through his sophomore year, he dropped out and hitchhiked to California where he devoted his time to writing. His mother’s death and her upbringing in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn before she was gentrified, are two major influences on his writing.
Lethem has published novels, short stories, essays and even a comic strip. He is known for bending genres. Gun, with Occasional Music, Lethem’s first novel, blends aspects of science fiction and detective stories. Many of his novels have been very well received by critics. Motherless Brooklyn, for example, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fortress of Solitude was a New York Times best seller. Critics have touted Lethem as a writer capable of fusing literary fiction and popular fiction. It is this mixture that allowed the writer to receive positive reviews from critics and climb to the top of the sales charts.
The author has been married three times. His first marriage, in 1987, was to Shelley Jackson, a writer and artist. That marriage lasted about a decade. His second marriage, which took place in 2000, was to Julia Rosenberg. Rosenberg is a Canadian film executive. This second marriage only lasted about two years. Lethem is still married to his third wife, Amy Barrett, a filmmaker. Together, they have one son, Everett Barrett Lethem, born May 23, 2007. Lethem currently lives in Brooklyn, quite close to where he grew up.
A summary bibliography of the author’s work follows:
novels
Gun, with Incidental Music (1994)
Amnesia Moon (1995)
As He Climbed the Table (1997)
Girl in the Landscape (1998)
Motherless Brooklyn (1999)
The Fortress of Solitude (2003)
You Don’t Love Me Yet (2007)
Fiction breve
Wall of Heaven, Wall of the Eye (1996)
Cartoons and Men (2004)
How We Got Bland (2006)
Short story
This Shape We Are In (2000)
nonfiction
The Artist of Delusion (2005)
Comic books
Omega the Unknown (2007)
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