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.