Mohsin Hamid's latest novel is called How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.
Jonathan Lethem's latest novel, Dissident Gardens, is expansive in scale. Chronologically speaking, it begins in the 1930s with Communist Party meetings in the U.S. It passes through the rise of McCarthyism, the establishment of the New York Mets, the hippie Age of Aquarius and the AIDS crisis. It ventures briefly abroad, to such places as behind-the-Iron-Curtain East Germany and war-torn Nicaragua. It ends in the Obama era of Occupy sit-ins and a rampant TSA.
But the novel does not proceed chronologically: It cuts repeatedly across time. Lethem's structure consists of four parts, each of four chapters, each chapter often recounting events separated by decades, from multiple points of view. This sounds confusing. It's a testament to Lethem's skill that reading it is not.
What holds the narrative together are its characters, in particular two powerful women: American communist firebrand Rose Zimmer and her progressive activist daughter, Miriam. Around them circles a constellation of men: men like Albert, Rose's husband, a left-wing, aristocratic German Jew; Cicero Lookins, the gay son of Rose's black cop lover; and Lenin "Lenny" Angrush, Miriam's lustful, scamming cousin.
Lethem animates these people with intimacy. His prose is oral in its rhythms (we read of an "imperfect, flat-assed moon"), its varying tonalities reflecting the inner voices of his characters. He tells their tales in what might be called a conventional, close third-person, "realistic" vein. There are slight deviations from this as well: a poignant epistolary chapter of letters between Miriam and Albert, for example, or the surreal encounters Rose, entering dementia, has with the TV character Archie Bunker.
Pop culture references are everywhere: Archie Bunker, of course, and also an ongoing stream of singers, writers, actors — people of lasting or transient fame. It's a mode, or technique, that feels profoundly American. As does the novel's maximalism: this is a big novel, from a country that has long had a rather vocal tradition of support for bigness in novels.
Dissident Gardens is, in part, a personalized history of the American left. Lethem captures optimistic communists and hippies in moments when they feel triumphant — and follows them to their political doom. For America has been a leftist graveyard, as the current historical moment of bank bailouts and half-hearted (but virulently resisted) health care reform makes clear. Still, doom is possibly too final a word: something always survives each dissident movement, to be taken up anew, in fresh forms.
Lethem's characters are riven by tensions. On the one hand they inhabit identities they have not chosen: gender, obviously, but also Jewishness, to which Lethem returns repeatedly, as well as blackness, gayness, the status of being someone's child. On the other, they cling to identities they have adopted for themselves: communist, activist, pacifist, singer, lover, wife.
The interplay between these two, between taken and given, personal and political, lies at the broken heart of Dissident Gardens. The span of this novel allows us to witness the impact of choices and legacies playing out across lifetimes, across generations, frequently to wrenching emotional effect. I was surprised, more than once, by my own sadness in the face of a character's impending demise.
At the end of Rose's life, with the old communist now suffering from dementia in a nursing home, Cicero comes to see her. "The gaze with which she'd cut down American Brownshirts," Lethem writes, "or landlord-corrupted police captains attempting to execute eviction notices, she now levied against Cicero's slight oversell of the rice pudding."
Thus, perhaps, do most dissidents end: their personal fragility inescapable, their desired political transformation out of reach, their individual smallness crushed by the weight of the collective millions they seek to change.
But not entirely crushed. Cicero offers a consolation: "'You did okay, though, Rose. You existed a while. It's in the record books.'" And it's in this moving novel, too.
9(MDE1MTIxMDg0MDE0MDQ3NTY3MzkzMzY1NA001))
Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Rose Zimmer met her husband at a packed meeting hall near Gramercy Park. They didn't know it at the time, but both had been sent by their respective Communist cells to infiltrate the meeting. So begins a truly radical new multigenerational novel from Jonathan Lethem. The book is called "Dissident Gardens" and here's author Mohsin Hamid with a review.
MOHSIN HAMID, BYLINE: "Dissident Gardens" is a big novel. And in a country with a long and vocal history of support for big novels, it fits. The book feels profoundly American. Chronologically speaking, Lethem begins in the 1930s with meetings of the American Communist Party. He passes through McCarthyism, the hippie Age of Aquarius and the AIDS epidemic.
He also goes abroad, to places like East Germany and war-torn Nicaragua. It's a lot of ground to cover, but Lethem is a skilled writer and it works. Holding the story together are two powerful women. Rose is a Communist firebrand. Her daughter, Miriam, is an activist. And circling around them are the men, Albert, Rose's husband, an aristocratic German Jew; Cicero, the black gay son of her lover; Lenny, the family's lustful cousin.
What it all adds up to turns out to be a very personal history of the American left. Optimistic Communists and hippies appear in the moments when they feel most triumphant. And from there, Lethem follows them to their doom. After all, America has been a leftist graveyard.
But even though this book is coming out in an era of bank bailouts and half-hearted health care reform, doom might be too final a word. Something always survives each dissident movement, to be taken up anew, in fresh forms. At the end of Rose's life, the old communist lives in a nursing home, suffering from dementia.
Cicero comes to see her. The gaze with which she'd cut down American Brownshirts, Lethem writes, or landlord-corrupted police captains attempting to execute eviction notices, she now levied against Cicero's slight oversell of the rice pudding. Maybe this is how all dissidents end - fragile, the transformations they hope for out of reach, the collective millions they sought to change crushing their individual smallness.
But not entirely crushing. Cicero offers a consolation. You did okay, though, Rose. You existed a while. It's in the record books. And it's in this moving novel, as well.
SIEGEL: The book is "Dissident Gardens" by Jonathan Lethem. Our reviewer is Mohsin Hamid. His latest book is called "How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad