What's a novelist supposed to do with contemporary culture? And what's contemporary culture supposed to do with novelists? In "The Ecstasy of Influence", Jonathan Lethem, tangling with what he calls the 'white elephant' role of the writer as public intellectual, arrives at an astonishing range of answers. A constellation of previously published pieces and new essays as provocative and idiosyncratic as any he's written, this volume sheds light on an array of topics from sex in cinema to drugs, graffiti, Bob Dylan, cyberculture, 9/11, book touring and Marlon Brando. Then there are investigations of a shelf's worth of his literary models and contemporaries: Norman Mailer, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis, James Wood, and others. And, writing about Brooklyn, his father, and his sojourn through two decades of writing, one of the greats of contemporary American literature sheds an equally strong light on himself. Funny and unfettered, "The Ecstasy of Influence" simmers with direct challenges to conventional wisdom and deep insights into the kaleidoscopic nature of artistic vision, the primacy of the writer in the cultural marketplace, and the way the author's own experiences have fuelled his creative passions.

The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, etc.

JONATHAN LETHEM

Vintage

Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc

JONATHAN CAPE.

It's here: the third and latest volume in the series that you have come to rely upon for your music-reading fix. The 2002 volume will celebrate the year's best writing about music and its culture, as selected by Jonathan Lethem, best-selling novelist, music hound, and self-confessed closet rock-writer. With pieces on a dazzling array of topics from more than a hundred sources, the collection brings you remarkable essays by journalists and authors who are as serious about writing as they are about music. It's required reading for anyone who loves either art. Past contributors have included: David Rakoff Mike Doughty Lorraine Ali Greil Marcus Richard Meltzer Robert Gordon Sarah Vowell Nick Tosches Anthony DeCurtis William Gay Whitney Balliett Lester Bangs Rosanne Cash Susan Orlean Eddie Dean Selwyn Seyfu Hinds Alec Wilkinson David Hajdu

Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002: The Year's Finest Writing On Rock, Pop, Jazz, Country, & More

Arts & Photography

Paul Bresnick

Music

Da Capo Press

Dissident Gardens

BOOKS ON TAPE]

Motherless Brooklyn

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

As She Climbed Across the Table

Faber and Faber

As she Climbed Across the Table

Great condition! By the author of Motherless Brooklyn. Good price for a copy that looks new!

Gun, with occasional music

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Faber&Faber

From the funked-up, messed up Brooklyn of the 1970s to the present day, this novel spans 30 years in the life of two best friends, Dylan and Mingus, their families and an entire neighbourhood. From their stories comes the history of soul music, graffiti art, comic books and experimental film.

The Fortress of Solitude

Literary

From the funked-up, messed-up Brooklyn of the 1970s to the present day, this stunning novel spans thirty years in the life of two best friends, Dylan and Mingus, their families and an entire neighbourhood. From their stories come the history of soul music, of graffiti art, of comic books, of experimented film and 'rock writing'. With a cast of more than a hundred characters and more than fifty speaking parts, this is a touching and intimate novel of an epic scale.

Fortress of Solitude

Vintage Books

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Books by JONATHAN LETHEM