The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
Constance Grady talks with author Jonathan Lethem about his prescient 2003 novel
June 30, 2022
37 min
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523 of 775
June 30, 2022
The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
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The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
Summary
Vox's Constance Grady talks with writer Jonathan Lethem about his 2003 work The Fortress of Solitude in this recording from a live Vox Book Club event. They discuss the prescient and still-relevant themes of the novel — like the issues of appropriation in art, gentrification, and superheroes, how Lethem approaches "realism" in his writing, and the role of music and comics in both his own life and the lives of his characters.
Vox Conversations will be on summer break the week of July 4th, and will return on Monday, July 11th.
Host: Constance Grady (@constancegrady), staff writer, Vox
Guests: Jonathan Lethem, author
References:
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (Vintage; 2003)
"The Fortress of Solitude is a fraught and uneasy love letter to a vanished Brooklyn" by Constance Grady (Vox; May 20)
"The Author Looks Inward: A Conversation with Jonathan Lethem" by Brian Gresko (LARB; Sept. 8, 2013)
Another Country by James Baldwin (1962)
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (1901)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977)
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This episode was made by:
Producer: Erikk Geannikis
Editor: Amy Drozdowska
Engineer: Patrick Boyd
Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall
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