Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

This book was given to me one Christmas and it never reached the top of my book pile. This is not the first title by this author, but this one was the Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Based on the book jacket, it appears that this is a classic detective novel - with a twist. "Phillip Marlowe would blush. And tip his fedora." I just love detective novels so I have high hopes for this one.

This book was such an intriguing read. You concentrate on the collection of characters and the set up with their lackluster lives and the Brooklyn setting -- and before you know it - you are caught up in the detective story. We have a bunch of misfit orphins who latch onto a small time mobster - and they develop a twisted sort of dependency on him. The narrator, Lionel Essrog, has Tourette's Syndrome so you get the full effect of his communication with society - as the paragraphs include his tics. I liked the book and I puzzled with the story -- it was not something I figured out before the end. I would highly recommend it and true the reviews - it is a noir type genre -- something to look forward to when Edward Norton completes his adaption and brings it to the screen next year.