S7 Ep. 4: Writing Gentrification: Jonathan Lethem on Brooklyn Now and Then

fiction/non/fiction

Novelist Jonathan Lethem joins host Whitney Terrell live at the Cider Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas. Lethem discusses his new book, Brooklyn Crime Novel, which is set in the neighborhood where he grew up—and where he also set his 2003 novel Fortress of Solitude. They discuss terms like blockbusting and redlining, and the ways that Lethem’s writing explores the ramifications of real estate manipulation on residents of these cities and others around the nation. Lethem reads from Brooklyn Crime Novel and talks about the book’s inventive approach to time.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Jonathan Lethem

• Brooklyn Crime Novel
• Motherless Brooklyn
• The Arrest
• The Fortress of Solitude

Others:

• James Alan McPherson
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Black Spring by Henry Miller
• Another Country by James Baldwin
• James Joyce
• Patricia Highsmith
• Iris Murdoch
• Henry James
• Mark Twain
• Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
• Ralph Ellison

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