Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem

A month or two ago I turned on NPR in the middle of a superhero-themed "Three Books" segment on NPR. I don't know why, but the paragraph-long blip on Men and Cartoons caught my attention, enough so that I went onto Amazon a couple days later to find myself a cheap used copy.

I really didn't know what to expect. Seriously - the blip told me almost nothing about the book. And I'm not really an avid short story reader. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to buy this. But I enjoyed it. I liked that when I finished I could go back and scan the titles and still remember every single story and the thoughts and emotions and atmosphere it evoked. I liked that Lethem mixed everyday with absurd or fantastical in very natural ways and in widely varying proportions in each one of his stories. I liked that he didn't write like he was trying to hard. Except for the last story. I didn't like that the book ended on my least favorite of the stories.

But I can forgive that. I'm not sure I feel wildly inspired to go read more Jonathan Lethem. Like I said, I'm just not really a short story person. I'm also not sure the book merited the powerful urge I felt to go buy it, but I'm still digesting what I read and rolling it all around in my head, so maybe it did.