“It was entirely possible that one song could destroy your life. Yes, musical doom could fall on a lone human form and crush it like a bug. The song, that song, was sent from somewhere else to find you, to pick the scab of your whole existence. The song was your personal shitty fate, manifest as a throb of pop floating out of radios everywhere.” -Excerpt from Chapter 7 of Jonathan Lethem’s novel The Fortress of Solitude.
On Tuesday, October 8, Brooklyn-born, nationally-acclaimed writer Jonathan Lethem will detour from his national book tour to visit the University of Southern Maine. At 7:30 in the Woodbury Campus Center in Portland, students, faculty and community members will have the chance to hear Jonathan Lethem read from his latest novel The Fortress of Solitude.
“Jonathan is a wonderful reader,” said USM Tradebook Manager Barbara Kelly, whose request brought Lethem to USM. The reading is to be held in the small room of the Woodbury Cafeteria, directly after the Words & Images submission lauch party at 6:30. Refreshments and a cash bar will be available. Copies of The Fortress of Solitude will be on sale at the reading.
Lethem was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 1999 for his novel Motherless Brooklyn and is being hailed by critics as the next DeLillo. Lethem’s father, Richard Lethem, is a part-time professor in the art department. In an exhibition entitled “Riders and Refugees” that concluded on October 25, Richard Lethem’s work was on display at the Aucocisco Gallery in Portland.
Melissa St. Germaine can be reached at [email protected]