Jonathan Lethem tells me he thinks Chronic City is his best and most complete work. This evaluation becomes interesting in light of the fact that we have a clash of critics in the Times. Michiko Kakutani in the daily New York Times reviewed the novel unkindly while Gregory Cowles on the cover of the New York Times Book Review called it a “bravura eighth novel.” Lethem, a MacArthur Award recipient, who has developed his reputation with “Motherless Brooklyn,” and “Fortress Of Solitude,” and been compared to a young Saul Bellow probably has little to fear from the critics, yet it is interesting to hear him discuss his current work and raison d’etre in his own words.
