Genre: Novel
Grade: B+
Notable People: Jonathan Letham
Title: Dissident Gardens
Review – Letham is really interesting writer. If you grew up in the 50s-60’s or have been around someone who has a good deal, …and are a communist leaning, New York , Jewish intellectual…then this book is right up your alley. Depending on how many of those criteria you meet- may determine whether or not you appreciate this book. Letham writes from a very intellectual perspective- you practically need a dictionary/ thesaurus to get through his work, but a lot of wry humor and insights galore. Hard to describe what this story is about- but traces a set of characters over 40-50 years in the far left reaches of the time. Not much in the way of likeable characters- but they are interesting, and a vivid portrait of the times. No happy endings here…a challenging but worthy read.