Motherless Brooklyn

⚖The case for it

A private detective with Tourette's syndrome investigates his mentor's murder. Lethem used the crime novel as formal experiment in voice: the narrative tics, the involuntary outbursts, the desperate control, turning the traditional detective novel inside out. Won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Gold Dagger. A genuinely original achievement.

— the canon

✕The case against

Subtract Lionel's Tourette's and you are left with a fairly ordinary detective story, which is the problem: the voice is the book. The actual mystery resolves through a muddle involving a Zen center and a Japanese corporation that even Lionel barely seems to follow. Lethem bet everything on the tic, and the plot got the leftovers.

— the honest librarian