I just wrote this really great review, and erased it. Shit!

Here it goes again...

This book is good, not great. I read the whole thing, which automatically earns it three stars. I rarely review books I don't like because I don't finish them, and, well, it just wouldn't be fair of me to review a thing I didn't give a chance, right?

I digress.

Lethem's style is intriguing, and it makes me want to read more of his work. That said, I think this book was lacking, in part because of the third person narrator that seemed to distance me from a less-than-interesting main character. I really think this type of story would benefit from first person, if only because it would add dimension to the main character and his circumstance.

A lot of what I found in this book was lovely but vague. The bullies, for instance, didn't come to life. Didn't even seem genuinely threatening, and although we're told that Dylan is scared, I don't believe it. I felt as though there needed to be something stronger about the kid's personality. He seemed too disconnected for me to relate to him. Again, a closer narrative would have remedied this.

I hear Motherless Brooklyn is far better, and I do plan to read it. As I read The Fortress of Solitude, I felt as though there was a stronger story begging to be told. Perhaps it is told in his other work. This is often the case with writers I like. And due to the sentences, the style, the descriptions, I do like Lethem. I do. I think he can do better.