The Fortress of Solitude

Book #39 of 2005 was The Fortress of Solitude, and it officially kicked my ass. Weighing in at a hefty 511 dense pages, I thought for awhile it was going to single-handedly derail my hopes of making my 50 book goal. Perseverance eventually prevailed though and I'm now proud to proclaim victory as I have finally finished this bad boy.

It would be hard to describe the book in a way that doesn't sound cheesy. It's the story of a Dylan Ebdus, a young white boy growing up in a predominantly black part of Brooklyn in the 1970's. Dylan becomes friends with his black neighbor and fellow comic book fan Mingus Rude (note the Bob Dylan/Charles Mingus dichotomy). The book follows their lives growing up together, and eventually going their own ways (Dylan on to college and a successful career and Mingus into a life of crime, drugs and prison). In a weird twist, Dylan obtains a ring that gives its wearer superpowers such as the ability to fly or turn invisible. Mingus and Dylan use the ring occassionally thoughout the book (its powers change over time), but its presence in the novel seems very understated compared to what you what expect from a superpowered ring. I suppose there's probably some kind of symbolism going on there, but it was never quite clear to me exactly why the ring was really a necessary plot device and if it was going to be a part of the story why it wasn't a bigger deal that they had it.

All in all, I don't know yet what to think of this one. I enjoyed Lethem's writing style and found his prose interesting. The book has great characters and paints vivid images of growing up in New York City, but the superpower thing really threw me for the loop. Everything in the book is realistic and believable except for the superhero piece (perhaps that was intentional?). As I was reading I thought that it was going to turn out that the ring didn't actually have any magical powers and that it was just the kids imagination mixed with their desire for better lives, but never in the book does Lethem do anything to dispel the idea that he expects us to believe that their powers are real (you gotta love fiction). I think this one is going to take awhile to absorb before deciding whether it's one I would recommend.

You can read an excerpt from the book here.

Longer more detailed reviews can be found here.