His back pages
For all the amnesia and fog to which he subjects the characters of his fiction, Jonathan Lethem has a long memory as it relates to his own experiences of book consumption. His latest, “More Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers,” is a collection of Mr. Lethem’s future experiences. In this dense, but not overlong volume, Mr. Lethem reveals himself to be a reader of breadth, depth and, above all, dynamism.
Editor Christopher Bouchet’s selection and arrangement of the materials highlights Mr. Lethem’s growth as a reader and critic in his loose (and sometimes not so loose) clustering of essays by subject. This presentation allows readers to see Mr. Lethem assessing and reassessing the works that resonate with him as a writer and critic. In doing so, Mr. Bouchet illustrates the lessons learned from subsequent visitations upon a work and Mr. Lethem’s growth as a writer in the interim. Mr. Lethem approaches his work as a critic with rigor and honesty. At his best, he writes with friendly casualness and is not above self-effacement.
In an essay written specifically for the book, “Footnote on Ishiguro,” Mr. Lethem admits that the benefits of his experience were hard won. In his early takes on the works of Kazuo Ishiguro and Thomas Berger, his critical approach was couched in his own experience of reading criticism. “It was a pretty stuffy, borrowed tone, to be honest,” he writes. “Writing about Ishiguro and Berger a second time, you see me groping my way to something a bit more relaxed.”
For Jonathan Lethem, criticism is an undertaking of great importance, but also one of intrinsic futility. It is necessarily both. “Books reviewed are written, by individuals on or off their game, in or out of their comfort zone, kidding or not kidding themselves about what they understand and control (always some of both, of course),” he goes on to write in the same essay.
Above all, “More Alive and Less Lonely” offers insight into Mr. Lethem’s affinities as a reader. It should come as no surprise, given his reputation as a bender of genre tropes, that Jonathan Lethem holds a great deal of affection for genre fiction. His loyalty is to the execution of an idea, not the high or low-brow context in which it is executed. He writes lovingly of Malcolm Braly’s unsung prison novel “On the Yard.” His potent and persuasive essays on the merit and tragedy of the late science-fiction author Philip K. Dick are the book’s highlight.
Perhaps because he has achieved mainstream success, himself, Mr. Lethem shows the greatest sympathy for those authors who, despite their effort and talent, never quite struck the landing that yields to artistic fulfillment and recognition. In addition to Dick, Mr. Lethem expresses fondness for Franz Kafka and Rod Serling, figures whose influence is now understood, but who did not get their due credit in life.
Taken in conjunction with Mr. Lethem’s wider body of work, “More Alive and Less Lonely” is a memorable and transportive offering that is equally informative as an introduction or an appendix. Like any (and every) book, reading it will shape the reader’s perception of whatever follows.
“John Riegert” by Eric Lidji, Brett Yasko and John Riegert. (Space, $50).
Probably the best description of the massive 700-page coffee table book about local artist John Riegert is the note on the back cover: “In February 2015, Brett Yasko asked 252 Pittsburgh artists to each make a portrait of the same person: John Riegert.
“What followed was a journey through studios, coffee shops, parks, museums, riverbanks, universities, cemeteries, artists’ homes and John’s own home. The culmination was an exhibition in the summer of 2016 where, among the portraits, John acted as docent — telling stories of each artist and his or her work, as well as stories of his own. This book documents the project with book-spanning essay by Eric Lidji and photographs andcaptions by Brett Yasko.”
Mr. Riegert is both an engaging and fearless subject. Mr. Yasko photographs him interacting with artistswhose goal is to transform a fellowartist into art. The result is a fascinating hodgepodge of the inspired, the brilliant and the mundane.Mr. Lidji’s book-length essay provides indispensable context for the explosion of John Riegert art thatfollows.
This is a fascinating and oddly moving portrait of an artist by other artists. What could have easily disintegrated into an egocentric display of aesthetic voyeurism has emerged as an invaluable meditation on making art that matters in the early decades of the 21st century. It isn’t Proust, but it may have more relevance for artists in Pittsburgh than any 19thcenturyman of letters ever could.