Men and Cartoons: Stories
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Jonathan Lethem’s new collection of stories is a feast for his fans and the perfect introduction for new listeners– a smorgasbord of fantastic, amusing, poignant tales written in a dizzying variety of styles. Lethem is a trailblazer of a new kind of literary fiction, sampling high and low culture to create fictional worlds that are utterly original. Longtime fans will recognize echoes of Lethem’s novels in all these pieces–narrators who can’t stop babbling, hapless detectives, people with unusual powers that do them no good, hot-blooded academics, the keen loss of love, clever repartee masking desperation, stumbling romances, and the obligations of friendship.
Sparkling with off-beat humor and subtle insights that have made Lethem one of today’s most highly praised writers, the stories in Men and Cartoons will delight Lethem’s legion of fans and appeal to a host of new listeners.
Editor's Note
Supernatural & banal...
Lethem’s characters are always more than the sum of their conceits. Whether his subject is a pretentious academic, a sour dystopianist, or an aging superhero, he makes their predicaments startlingly recognizable.
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Reviews for Men and Cartoons
188 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'm still not sure what I think about Jonathan Lethem. He's clearly a talented guy, and he draws on some of the same pop-cultural references I do. I feel like his work should resonate with me more, but there is always a refusal in his work to build toward something other than a kind of ellipses. I enjoyed a couple of these stories, was intrigued by several, and make it through the rest. But I'm still wondering what Lethem wants me to think. I'm still wondering what he himself thinks. Maybe he just had a more enjoyable childhood than I did, so he will forever have this pervasive nostalgia to go back and be something that he never really was. I'm open to ideas here. But I may not be open to reading many more of his books if something doesn't start to click.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two or three of these stories haunt me, all are memorable.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A good collection of quirky stories with a modern feel. A couple contain characters who either are or consider themselves to be superheros and concern their relations with "normal" people. Another portrays a characters adventures in a dystopian world where some people live in apartments and the rest live in their cars, and there is no crossing over except for hire. In another, the narrator is named "the Dystopianist." One narrator's life is defined by a few chance encounters with a woman he feels a distinct connection to, despite their having no shared history. The stories make a cohesive whole, with the possible exception of the last, a letter from one friend to another, but even this deals with modern sensibilities and explores how one character deals with the challenges people face today.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I really don’t like to read short stories. I usually find them unsatisfying. That notwithstanding, Lethem is an interesting writer who isn’t afraid to experiment, and sometimes the short story can be the best medium for experimentation. In some cases, such as the stories “Access Fantasy” and “Super Goat Man,” he pulls it off. In others, I was left wondering what the point was. But in general, this is a more interesting and therefore readable collection than most.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It was fun to see Lethem taking off in all these different tangents in this collection of short stories—almost like watching him riff. Short and sweet.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This collection has been tagged as both sci-fi and fantasy, but it is really too eclectic and too strange to be defined as a whole in such a way. The eleven stories range from a tale of a commercial dystopian future to a long letter about a failed affair, and several even odder places in between. Though they cover a great array of characters and themes, they all have the same feel of strangeness and discomfort. Lethem can make a suburban family or college house party feel foreign. Unfortunately, a few of these stories are so strange, their point becomes elusive, if it exists at all. Lethem gives the appearance of being a great disciple of Philip K. Dick, which these few stories exemplify. This reviewer feels that part of his ultimate goal is to make the reader approach common situations with greater awareness by turning them into absurdities. A couple of the stories fall flat, with no great effect, but with no great flaw either; however, several more are real gems that exhibit a virtuosity in strangeness and a keen perception in the bizarreness of life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A quick, breezy read of Lethem's quirky short stories. Very well done overall, although some are more engaging than others. The highlights were: "Planet Big Zero," "The Dystopianist, Thinking of His Rival, Is Interrupted by a Knock on the Door," & "Super Goat Man."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lethem is truly an original. Reading his stories, you are amazed at the places, physical and philosophical, he takes you. I especially enjoyed "Access Fantasy" and "This Shape We're In" (included in the US paperback edition).
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Enjoyable. Each story seems to be an exercise in putting you slightly off-balance, and most of them end before they wear out its welcome. I particularly liked "The Dystopianist, Thinking of His Rival, Is Interrupted by a Knock on the Door" and "Super Goat Man." "Access Fantasy" gets good after the characters begin Advertising.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I didn't learn to like short stories until midway through my senior year of college. I'm still not sure I do. I don't like how we get snapshots instead of full length feature films. I don't like how they come to an abrupt end just as we're beginning to know the characters. I don't even like how tight and focused they are. Most of the time. But midway through my senior year in college, I noticed something different. They started to grow on me. It began in the creative writing class I was taking. Then I started reading the New Yorker's short fiction. Then I started buying short story collections.Which brings us to my first book for 2006. Jonathan Lethem is one of a handful of Jonathans, along with Jonathan Franzen, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Jonathan Harr, who occasionally get called "the potential voice of his generation." (Ok, maybe not Jonathan Harr). But more so than the other three, Lethem has failed to move away from the settings and the themes of his childhood, both real and imagined. And in Men and Cartoons, which has just been released in paperback, Lethem is singing the same song, but he's playing it 9 different ways. Lethem's stories aren't what you'd call powerful. And his characters aren't what you'd call sympathetic (the sole example being the titular character from the story "Super Goat Man," which I first read in the New Yorker). But on the whole, this collection of stories is rather affecting, each in its own quirky, slightly off-balance way. Lethem has a good ear for dialogue and a good eye for detail, but it's his imagination that carries the day. And it only takes a paragraph or two for the reader to find himself wrapped up in that imagination. Rather than summarize each story, I'll leave it at this:One day, I'll be ready for Lethem to grow up. But I'm not there yet. -1/4/06