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The Disappointment Artist:

Essays
Front Cover
31 Reviews
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Dec 18, 2007 - Literary Collections - 160 pages
In a volume he describes as "a series of covert and not-so-covert autobiographical pieces," Jonathan Lethem explores the nature of cultural obsession—from western films and comic books, to the music of Pink Floyd and the New York City subway. Along the way, he shows how each of these "voyages out from himself" has led him to the source of his beginnings as a writer. The Disappointment Artist is a series of windows onto the collisions of art, landscape, and personal history that formed Lethem’s richly imaginative, searingly honest perspective on life. A touching, deeply perceptive portrait of a writer in the making.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Review: The Disappointment Artist

User Review  - Brendan - Goodreads

First things first: This book made me feel like an asshole for not having already read The Fortress of Solitude. Like, a big asshole. Originally, Lethem expected to be a painter. He instead became a ... Read full review

Review: The Disappointment Artist

User Review  - Mark - Goodreads

I'd never read any Jonathan Lethem but had heard great things about him. Now I see why. This was a great way to test the waters and I'm now looking forward to reading his longer work. Clearly the man ... Read full review

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About the author (2007)

Jonathan Lethem is the author of six novels, including The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of two short story collections, Men and Cartoons and The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye, and the editor of The Vintage Book of Amnesia. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Granta, and Harper’s. He lives in Brooklyn and Maine.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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