Brilliantly experimental. I know this is the kind of book you love or hate, and fortunately, I loved it. It requires a lot of focus, which, like, duh — but it's so worth it.

Jonathan Lethem is wonderful at creating scene and setting and giving us a haunting experience in his narrative.

I really struggled with this and almost wish I had the written copy rather than the audio version. The narration did not set well with me and due to that I could not even get through it and won't be doing a video review as it would be unfair to the author. For the part I did get through, it seemed okay. If I read the novel, I'll post a full review.

Thank you for the copy. I enjoyed the premise, but the audio quality and narration pacing was poor.

At first I found this book a bit difficult to get into but then I became truly engaged by the characters and how the author truly *get* Brooklyn. I have been a Brooklyn resident for about 16 years and while I didn’t experience the Brooklyn in Letham’s story - he gets that Brooklyn is a complex place - one full of different cultures, ethnicities, and people. This stories all felt rich and real. My only real gripe with the book is that it’s not a traditional novel. The narrative style felt a but unconventional - I didnt dislike it, I just wish I knew what to expect when I pressed play.

Since I listened to the audiobook, I’ll provide some feedback on the narrator. I think he did a great job bringing each character and story to life. There were a lot of parts if this book where with another narrator, I might have drifted but he kept me engaged and is largely the reason I didn’t give up when I was thinking about it.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who has experience with Brooklyn or any American city really and enjoys stories with different perspectives and pov chapters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen.

This highly unique form for a novel took some time to sink into, but once I did, the rhythm clicked. The short chapters cover a variety of historical insights, scenarios, and commentary specific to Brooklyn, NY. It could be considered a "setting sketch," in a way. Some of the topics didn't hold my attention as much, but there were a few moments that made me laugh out loud, including the line, "the unbearable whiteness of their being." The explanation of "blockbusters" provided a startling and important learning moment. While this wasn't a 100% match for my taste, I think the author was effective in what he aimed for, and the book's description is accurate to what readers will find inside.

This was the first book I ever read where the place was the main character. As a New Yorker who grew up in the 70's and 80's in Queens, I could definitely relate to many of the interconnected stories in this book.

NY isn't just a state or city, but a place made up of a bunch of little territorial neighborhoods all claimed by ethnicity at least that is how it was growing up. This is what makes Vrookly Crime Novel so unique. It feels like the biggest criminal in the entire book. It's a crime boss that rules the lives of all of the people in its dominion and assigns their place in the organization.

This book was both nostalgic and sad for me to read. It speaks to so many things wrong with our society; race, class, gender. It also speaks to the possibilities if we could transcend them all and live together in a place as beautiful as Brooklyn.

The narrator did an excellent job with the many voices in this novel. I must admit, however, that I did not enjoy this one as much as some of his previous work. Perhaps if I were from NY I would be more appreciative? The dynamic within the neighborhood and between the different cultural groups was well portrayed.

I just couldn’t do this one. I gave the audiobook a few hours but could just tell this one wasn’t for me. There is no plot and really no characters. It is a series of stories about a Brooklyn neighborhood that I just couldn’t connect to.

I struggled with this one and was unable to finish it, although my mind keeps returning to odd bits of it so I'll likely revisit it with the physical book rather than the audio at some point. May have possibly been the wrong book at the wrong time.

unfortunately, I just don’t think this was for me. Which is ok!! I think if you’re familiar with the geography and/or history of Brooklyn you might love this book! It’s definitely unusual and I really wanted to be into / get it.. I just couldn’t. I also think it was difficult as an audio book without being able to flip back and reference when certain characters showed up before. Really interesting concept, I’m sure it’s for other people just didn’t hit for me.

I am so thankful to Harper Audio, Netgalley, and Jonathan Lethem for granting me access to this twisty thriller. I am such a horror/thriller girl so this one was right up my alley.

This is the first ever ARC that I am giving a DNF title to, and it's killing me. I made it to 24%, and quite honestly, it's just not a book for me.

The characters don't have names, the stories fling out like someone feeding chickens, and the formatting and chaos is like nails on a chalkboard to my organized and methodical brain.

If you are a person that loves to talk about how much you love New York, if you grew up in NY, if you have a super NY fetish, if you like to talk to a guy that waxes philosophical and never gets to the damn point, I'm sure you'll love this. But I am not that human.

Authors so closely identified with the locales in their works are those that have had lifelong experience, and along with Pete Hamill and Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem is the personification of Brooklyn. He knows the streets, the stories, most notably, the people, and here I'd like to think he delves into meta to display his personal history. These characters breathe from early days through the rough times and weathering the withering of gentrification. Watching their row houses become targets of developers, changing their neighborhood forever. Speaking in distinctive local style, they portray Brooklyn as only true natives could. In the audio version, Geoffrey Cantor provides style and wit.

I suspect that this would be a better read in print. I could not get into the book, however, and gave up about halfway through. I liked the approach of the vignettes but it was hard to move forward through the audiobook.

Many thanks to NetGalley for this audio ARC. I hope to read this in print.

This book was fascinating to me. The way a place changes over time and what has an effect on those changes, as well as how those changes then affect the people and place even more, kept me reading. Unfortunately, I often found myself rereading because the writing style was so removed that I never became as engrossed in the novel as I like to be. I could not immerse myself in this place. I remained an outsider.

Fans of John Dos Passos and the social novel -- Rejoice! The spirit of both are alive and well in Jonathan Lethem's latest. The author has been writing about Brooklyn for decades -- see Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, most notably. However, in those previous works, the author's narrative focus was directed on specific characters who represented protagonist and antagonist, moving the plot forward. In Brooklyn Crime Novel, Lethem is a documentarian writing episodes dating back decades - and the protagonist? Brooklyn itself. Lethem does not focus on any specific character. He is writing about everyone in Brooklyn, for they are Brooklyn. Brooklyn is them. This is a big novel about big ideas: race, sex, gentrification, capitalism, communism, good guys, bad guys, the cops against everybody, the borough, the neighborhood, the brownstone, the street, the beginning, and the end. Lethem's novel is not going to be an easy read for everyone. But everyone who makes the time and the effort to read Brooklyn Crime Novel will NOT be disappointed, and they will want more.

What a fascinating book. Lethem is one of the great innovators in modern American fiction. This novel is a pastiche of a neighborhood over time. We dip in and out of the lives of different characters. The crimes, both small and large, are a part of their lives. There is no one narrator we follow, other than the authorial voice. Yet by the end of the book you feel as though you've lived through these events, been there during all of the times.

I’ve not read Jonathan Lethem before but know his name and was very intrigued by this premise. Stylistically, this book won’t be for everyone—it’s interesting, but written at quite a distance so it’s hard to get your bearings and feel connected. Ultimately, it didn’t pay off for me, but I imagine some readers will enjoy this style.

Jonathan Lethem has written an incredible almost-meta, at least winking crime novel to bring his beloved Brooklyn to life and the result is excellent. As someone who doesn't necessarily love classic mystery structures, the self-conscious grittiness of the writing and the thematic exploration of whether crime stories are the best way to tell the story of a place really worked for me. This will definitely earn a place in my Fall Reading Guide! Public review to come on @fictionmatters and fictionmatters.substack.com

The Fortress of Solitude is one of my all time favorite books so I am always up for the newest Lethem. This one definitely does not disappoint. Familiar Brooklyn, but a new and interesting presentation -- seeing the boro through the lens of the changing times and short vignettes featuring characters that will strike a chord with those who grew up in these years. Melancholy at times and wise crackingly funny in others. Vintage Lethem.