A review by rbreade
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

Lethem is one of those writers I'll read even if only for the language and the ideas, both of which are on display here in abundance. If the story lacks urgency--and it does--the prose acts as a countervailing force to keep me reading. Protagonist Chase Insteadman's friendship with don't-call-him-a-music-critic Perkus Tooth is the main course and through it the plot meanders, always seeming on the precipice of boiling over into significance but never quite crossing that line. I appreciate the subtle playing with simulated worlds theory--nothing ham-fisted here--but wish it might have risen just a bit more in importance to the story. The gigantic tiger, "a second-story tiger," that stalks the pages, off-camera, for the most part, is a nice magical realist touch that, when finally seen on an empty, snowy Manhattan street, delivers a jolt of the irreal to both the characters who see it and the reader.