Not my favourite of Jonathan Lethem’s novels. Occasionally, his characteristic flair sparkles and powers the book forward, but it doesn’t work for me in its entirety.

In “The Blot”, Jonathan Lethem tells the story of Alexander Bruno, a telepathic professional backgammon gambler who discovers a “blot” in his vision, and that unless he does something about it he’s living on borrowed time. I usually enjoy Jonathan Lethem’s books, and I thought this would be the case again, as the beginning of the novel looked really promising. But in the second half of the book, the story stalled and lost interest, and I ended the book feeling quite disappointed and not really caring any more about what was happening to Bruno. Not a bad book, but not by a long shot as good as “Motherless Brooklyn”, my favorite Lethem’s work.

Yes – and no. I like Jonathan Lethem. I’m usually willing to go along for the ride, to invest the time his novels demand. And up to a point the same applied to this, his latest original and for the most part compelling tale of a professional backgammon gambler whose future career and possibly his very life is under threat when he develops a blind spot, what he calls a “blot” in his vision. A “blot” is also the term used in backgammon for a piece that stands alone, vulnerable to attack. The parallels are obvious, as indeed are most of the tropes and metaphors in this long rambling novel. There’s no real plot apart from Alexander Bruno’s protracted struggle with his “blot” and although the first half of the book is entertaining and enjoyable, with some wonderful set-pieces (Bruno’s brain surgery is quite unforgettable) towards the end it all descends into a rather bizarre and unsatisfactory muddle of strange characters and less than convincing episodes. So yes; to a large degree, I was carried along by the sheer verve of Lethem’s writing, but equally no; as both author and character seem to lose their way as the novel progresses.

There is a real absurdist bent to this delightfully weird book. We follow our protagonist, Alexander Bruno as he gambles his way through Singapore and Berlin, has life changing surgery and muses on the benefits of telepathy. The characters here are definitely larger than life and they would all be the most interesting person in the room at any dinner party, so to have them all interacting is really good fun. Alexander is appealing and charismatic, without being arrogant or irritating, and as we learn more about his back story, his debonair lifestyle is even more impressive. The prose is elegant and funny and the narrative moves at a good pace, keeping the reader's interest through a series of increasingly bizarre events. This is a great read and strikes me as the kind of book that will just get better the more time you spend with it.

A further hanger-ful in the wardrobe of Emperor's New Clothes that is modern American literary fiction, this can be entertaining at times, but whatever your stance will grind to a meh-point at some point, however much you may love the author. I got so far (gallingly, to about 40%) before giving up. And the copious reviews from Lethem-lovers stating how this is poor, how it will denigrate itself with flipping of sliders (whatever the fluck those are), and how it will maintain misogyny to the end and likewise have a crap conclusion, didn't make me return to its pages, funnily enough. Beforehand it had touches of an interesting character, a clunky back-story bit that didn't have to be that way, an interesting locale – but was more concerned with shedding them all in favour of whinging about some campus part of San Francisco I'd never even bloody heard of. Big whoop. Not even a State of the Nation novel, then (although TBH if it was one I'd have run a mile before opening it) – but what the point is remained kind of too elusive. Oh, and it's certainly NOT funny, despite some allegations elsewhere.

Having studied Letham at University, I was incredibly excited to hear about his release of a new novel, and was eager to get my hands on some contemporary American writing in the moment.

I had enjoyed Letham for his easygoing, readable style matched with a sense of literariness which make him both interesting to study and fun to read. I was not disappointed by his newest piece of work: The Blot.

The novel dives straight in to the world of Alexander Bruno – jetting around Europe, conning rich men through that incredibly sexy form of gambling known as… backgammon? We soon find out that he is no James Bond – or at least a very inept one – as he is losing more money than he is making. Completely bankrupt, Alexander’s life, like much of the novel is obscured by a ‘blot’. The novel centres around ideas of obscurity and maskedness, as well as cancer – the possible cause of Bruno’s life threatening visual impairment. This is the kind of theme that I was hoping to unpick further, but other than to a poetic irony (don’t want to give any spoilers away!) I didn’t feel it really led anywhere.

The novel is certainly readable, and if anything the lack of obvious plot drives you forward; you want to find out what happens to these absurd characters. However, if I thought I was going to get any kind of profound take on contemporary America there was something left to be desired – Lethem’s novel doesn’t hide it’s post-modern roots at all, which hinders it from really being of the moment.

Lethem doesn’t take on any social commentary or political satire with this novel – his debt to Pynchon perhaps ending with his style. Instead we get interesting and odd characters, in ludicrous and absurd situations making for a read which, if lacking in meaning or a point, is at the very least, enjoyable.

This is a very enjoyable page-turning novel by Jonathan Letham. The quality of the writing is excellent, with vividly realised scenes in places as far apart as Germany, Singapore and California and it is full of intriguing characters and vivid dialogue. There is also much humour. A triumph.

This book is going to be published again with the title "The blot", but I cannot really understand why as it is far from being one of the best books written by Lethem, to be precise I read it because I had to, but I would never read it again. The characters are superficial and it was impossible for me to understand half of the reason why they did something, the other half reason I disagreed with. Only thing that this book left me is the desire to learn Backgammon.

Non capisco il perché, ma tra un paio di settimane questo libro verrá ripubblicato con il titolo "The blot", pur non essendo il migliore tra i libri di Lethem, anzi; per quanto mi riguarda io dovevo leggerlo, ma non lo rifarei mai. I personaggi mi sono sembrati piuttosto superficiali ed é stato impossibile per me capire, almeno la metá delle volte, perché facevano delle cose, quando lo capivo invece, di solito non ero d'accordo. L'unica cosa che mi ha lasciato questo libro, é il desiderio di imparare a giocare a Backgammon.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!