Book Review Number 5: You Don't Love Me Yet

Jonathan Lethem:You Don’t Love Me Yet
224 Pages (2007)

Lethem is on of our best, hippest and funnest writers. Along with guys like Jonathan Franzen and TC Boyle they provide cultural references and social commentary that makes for a read that is enjoyable and hard to find. Lethem bust on to the scene with his classif “Fortress of Solitude” about growing up in Brooklyn, a white kid, mother gone, basically pretending he is a super hero. The music references are excellent throughout that one and the literature is just as good. If your a boomer...it just resonates. Lethem has made his bones since then with some good follow ups and a lot of good reviews and interviews including a brilliant Dylan interview last year in Rolling Stone.

This book is not of that classic category but...what a good read. Set in L.A. following a girl Lucinda and her love life and her band. I am always hesitant about boys writing out of a girls voice but Lethem carries it off (at least from this boys point of view) very well. Lucinda has two ex boyfriends and a current beau who do not complicate her life but seem to add texture and angst and some occasional good sex to it. She is single minded and the current beau is “the complainer” who she meant while manning a performance art piece/complaint line. The performance artist is one of her exes and the lead singer in her band is her current ex...if that makes any sense, and somewhat exhaustingly the bands “genius” also eventually succumbs to her whiles.

The book makes a lot of cultural comment regarding the vacuous beauty of southern California... with people having jobs but not working or sometimes working when they they do not have jobs. The scene and appearance are always valued over content and substance and everyone gets totally caught up in their own little crusades whether it is for art or for the better socialization of kangaroos in the zoo. Sometimes it seems pointless... but more often it is brilliant and funny. It is similar but better then Steve Martin’s recently somewhat brilliant novella “Shop Girl” which was made into a bad movie with the interesting but alway spooky Clare Danes. If you liked “Shop Girl” you will love this. It is just plain and simple better written.
He writes as well as anyone walking around. He turns a phrase with such alacricity as to be alarming. Which makes it perfect that the new boyfirend turns phrases for a living. Lucinda puts his phraseology together with Bedwin, their bands songwriting genius and magic starts to happen. What always seperates a book look like this which is so embedded inpop culture is how “lovingly” the author embraces all the nuances and references that are near and dear to the psychotic obsessive complusive about the topic. Hear is where Lethem has perfect pitch. He discusses and references ultra obscure and perhaps non existent local (LA) indy bands and then pays homage to Alex Chilton and the Band “Big Star” who although hitless in their two existing studio albums are whispered about with reverie in indy rock snob circles.

The book is about wandering through young adulthood, playing in a band, tetherless relationships...and everyone’s emptiness. Lucinda wanders through the lives of her bandmates innocently (?) creating carnage and doing damage she never imagines till the end when she is sleeping unoticed in another bed as two lovers discuss her... and throw her clothes in the garbage. Even the introduction of a kangaroo from the L.A. zoo does not make me suspend my disbelief or pull me away from this very enjoyable read. Buy it. It is a cultural slice of life that will stand up pretty well to the test of time. If it were later in the year this one would show up on everyone’s “Bestof 07” lists or at least the cool peoples. 8 slingers out of 10.