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Like Fortress of Solitude these stories are very much inspired by Lethem having come of age reading Marvel Comics. Many of the stories have Solitude's mix of realistic vignettes with a dash of super hero surrealism. The best example of that being "Super Goat-Man" a story that is really about glimpses of the narrator's life growing up in a Brooklyn hippie commune, then going to a small New England college, and finally marrying and becoming a college professor. Throughout his life he crosses paths with Super Goat-Man a retired super-hero and liberal counter-culture type. His super-hero status is a stand in for his 1960's aging hippie status and what makes him a super-hero or part-man, part-goat is only described in passing as if his presence in this world needs no explanation.

My favorite story is without the surreal elements of super powers but directly references comics. "The Vision" takes place in Brooklyn and is about a parlor game at a party that compels the players to reveal embarrassing and damaging facts about themselves. The host of the party, as told by the narrator who went to elementary school with him, used to dress up as the Vision from Marvel comics. This fact is what gets the story started and what brings it to an end.

I'm not usually a short story fan. I find the stories end before they really finish and this is the case in some instances here but I really enjoyed this collection more than I would have thought.
B+

Posted at January 4, 2005 01:49 PM