I'd give this two and a half stars if Goodreads would let me.I chose this in a far more hurried manner than usual. I was in the airport, knew I was likely to finish my book in flight, and knew I'd need something to get me through the rest of the trip. I dashed into the mini-Powell's at the airport, ran my eyes over the Literary Fiction/Classics section, saw Lethem's name, though, "Hey, I've heard good things and been meaning to check him out," and arbitrarily picked this from among the titles offered.Turns out people who love Lethem's other work found this a great disappointment, so I'm probably not insane. Thing is, the prose was beautiful, and Lethem's descriptions of Los Angeles (the city I happened to be traveling to) were beautiful and spot-on. All the more disappointing that such a perceptive writer should take us on such an uninteresting journey.You know how Delillo's characters are kind of fascinating and sophisticated but also kinda flat and sometimes obnoxious and his dialogue is sometimes impossibly clipped and abstract? You know how that kind of annoys you but then the ideas just completely deliver and at the end of the day it's completely OK with you that he's far more talented as an essayist and aphorist than as a fiction writer? Except when he really doesn't deliver? Well, Lethem opens this novel with two impossibly beautiful Angelinos meeting at a gallery to break up. Except he doesn't say that and they don't say that -- the dialogue (which I'd quote if I hadn't already gotten rid of the book) is implausibly clipped and abstract. Then there's band practice, and nobody can tell if the band in question is completely shitty or really onto something. Then there's one character's absurd job taking calls at the Complaint Line, an art installation -- and she's inexplicably fascinated by a particular caller's self-possessed complaints that she pursues a relationship with him in real life. It turns out he's an honest to God aphorist -- and while a few of his lines are compelling, most of them are just annoying. Then there's a subplot involving one character's creepy decision to abduct a kangaroo from the zoo where he works/has been fired. That made me hopeful that this whole stupid millieu would turn into some kind of madcap mystery, but no, that subplot resolves itself with disappointing tidiness. As does, for that matter, the relationship with the complainer, and pretty much everything having to do with the band. None of this matters much, because I had pretty much nothing invested in the characters or their outcomes. And I really tried. Before their ages were revealed to me, I imagined the characters were in their early 20s and maybe-educated, maybe-not, which would explain why they do such stupid things and seem so desperate to impress. Turns out, no, they're all supposed to be on the precipice of 30, and they are all educated. Now, I'm 27, and I can scarce imagine anyone I know behaving as stupidly as the characters in this book. Maybe I give my friends too much credit, or maybe I choose them well enough to avoid this -- but seriously, any reasonably intelligent, experienced 29-year-old woman should have seen right through the complainer.Spoiler alert -- the unnamed band disappears to the void they spend all but 20 pages inhabiting, which makes perfect sense, because apart from a few passages describing the chemistry at their first show, the only thing you know about the band's sound is their lyrics (appropriated from the complainer's aphorisms), which are so bad you assume the music has to be fantastic in order to carry them. This is, in fact, suggested at one point in the book, and it's the only explanation that makes any sense to me.Since the two major storylines involve theft (the kangaroo and the complainer's words), I assume Lethem's Big Ideas -- you know, the ones that should make it worth our while to tolerate the stupidity and shallowness of the characters -- have something to do with, like, the transmutability of intellectual property. This is an issue he's written about quite eloquently elsewhere. It's handled with embarrassing clumsiness here. I'll give the man another shot, but I can't recommend this particular work to anyone.
Audio book experiment II failed.I am pretty sure this book would have blown even if I had read it on the page. I listened to it while driving back and forth to Santa Clara from my home office for a project I was working on. I was sick of my iPod so I thought I'd try audio books. (I have since learned from friend recommendations and personal experience that it is not the best idea to listen to fiction while driving.)Anyway, as far as I could surmise, this book is about a young band trying to break into the music business. Some weird shit happened with a kangaroo in a bathroom, but I had totally lost track of what was going on by the time I realized there was a kangaroo in a bathroom. There was a sex scene which almost made me drive off the road, so that accounts for the second star.Why I didn't like this book:1. The writing is poor. It was read by the author himself so I thought it would at least sound the way he intended, but even that didn't help.2. The title of the book is ripped off from a Roky Erickson song. It bums me out that this crappy book is named after such a beautiful song. Erickson wasn't even acknowledged anywhere in the book. So I am here to tell you (for what it's worth): No, Jonathan Lethem didn't think of the title on his own. 3. And this is my biggest pet peeve. The band eventually gets a gig and rocks the house with their single. The crowd chants for them to play their single a second time, so they do and they rock the house again. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN! NO ONE likes it when a band plays a single twice in one show! It never, ever sounds as good as the first time and it's totally lame and it kills the moment. It's like telling the audience you have no additional material and you'll never be more than that one song. It is the lamest move a band can ever make. I can't believe Lethem actually put that in his book.
What do You think about You Don't Love Me Yet (2007)?
Easily Lethem's worst book to date. Sure, it's still enjoyable, but would I say it's worth your time? Nope. It starts off so promising, inside of a rock band, with its break ups and makeups, its poor decisions and failure to start. They still haven't played their first show, though they are nearing thirty, they still don't have a name and work crappy part time jobs. Then there is a mysterious caller and a kangaroo and the book gets wild. I was prepared to love this, but it didn't work.Why doesn't it work? Because about two thirds of the books plot points depend upon a series of increasingly unlikely coincidences, which is bad enough, but the final third of the decisions made by the characters are mostly out of the blue, without precedent or real warning. You can certainly make an argument as to why things happen, but largely, it feels sloppy at best. There is a point where a character overhears a conversation in a dream. I was loving it, because it was such a silly, ridiculous dream that illustrated the paranoid worst case scenario of someone who is determined to ruin their life, but then it turned out to be real? And then another half dozen coincidences lined up?Neither as zany as it could be or as serious as it should be, the novel ends up a fizzle and disappointment.
—Jason
I would hate if my boss always compared my successes to my failures. Luckily my boss doesn't. If he did, I would quit. What he usually says when I make a mistake is 'Ryan, you screwed up, don't do it again'. Unfortunately most of Jonathan Lethem's readers don't give him that much respect. As an author of tremendous talent, he constantly gets compared to his greatest works. A comparison that is a waste to both the author and to any critical reader.That said, at its best YOU DON'T LOVE ME YET is like a really bad Scholastic Reader novella version of REALITY BITES that was written after the popularity of the movie to capture any risidual fondness. Y'know, it is kind of like when you were a kid and you bought Karate Kid at the book fair after already seeing the movie. Realizing that this analogy is confusing even for me, it seems that Lethem wrote the book with, even if only tongue-in-cheek, nostalgia for the art/music/art music/art music slacker scene of early 90s Los Angeles -- a nostalgia I am not sure that exists. The characters have no depth and the story was boring, unfunny, and uninteresting. So to Lethem I wouldn't say 'This book is no FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE' because I don't want him to rewrite that book -- if I wanted to read an author that rewrites the same book, I would read Clancy or Grisham. What I would say to him is 'Lethem, you screwed up, and don't please don't do it again'.
—Ryan
This book has such beautiful prose. I LOVED Jonathan's writing style. He used enough non-standard descriptions to keep me interested in the writing just for the feel of it.The story was a bit unusual. I'm not sure I quite loved that. It's a standard story about a 29 year old woman in a bit of a personal crisis, looking for love, generally in the wrong places. I have to admit that I could spot this was written by a man. I'm not sure why he didn't make the main character male so that wouldn't have stood out so much. But it didn't detract too much. I think it is a matter of taste. A woman who has nothing in her live except sex and the need to form fleeting connections just isn't my thing. But if it was, this book probably would have gotten 4 stars from me. As it is... I have to give it 3 for the prose alone.
—Laura Rittenhouse
