Jewishness and Identity in Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn
NAES, Aarhus, May 2004

Postmodern detective novels have become increasingly common (particularly pastiches of the hard-boiled sub-genre), but Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn (1999) is a thoroughly original contribution, and in its treatment of identity issues points beyond the postmodern narrative form.

The protagonist, Lionel Essrog, suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, which in many ways disqualifies him from being a good detective (echolalia and other compulsions make it hard for him to work undercover), but in other ways makes him a unique detective (his compulsive attention to detail is, for instance, a great help). He is also an orphan, who suddenly finds himself without a mentor, when his adopted father figure is murdered in a rather gruesome fashion.

This paper will focus particularly on Lionel’s discovery of self and the transition he experiences from having defined himself exclusively in terms of his syndrome and his status as orphan, towards discovering a possible belonging in a Jewish identity. The paper suggests that encoded in Lionel’s last name, “Essrog”, is a kernel of kabalistic, symbolic meaning, which Lionel remains unaware of, but which the reader is invited to detect and develop, as Lionel himself grows more and more confident as a tic’ing, Tourettic detective.


Jonathan Lethem

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