History Literature / MotherlessBrooklyn

* HardboiledDetective: Lionel tries... and fails. It's {{adorkable}}!

* HollywoodTourettes: Lionel actually has a pretty realistic depiction of Tourette's, focusing mainly on tics rather than the usual coprolalia.

* UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity: Um... yeah.

* {{Shout Out}}:

* {{A Father to His Men}}: Frank Minna to Lionel, the rest of the Minna Men, at least at the start of their relationship.
* {{Aloof Big Brother}}: Girard to Frank. Tony and Danny to Lionel and Gilbert.
* {{The Don}}: Matricardi and Rockaforte. The two old men that Frank answers to.
* {{The Family for the Whole Family}}: Frank certainly thinks of his Men, or at least Lionel, in this manner, not even allowing them to carry guns due to their incompetence.

* {{Genre Savvy}}: Everyone. They all act as if they are part of a detective novel which... they are.
* {{Hardboiled Detective}}: Lionel tries... and fails. It's {{adorkable}}!
* {{Heartwarming Orphan}}: The flashbacks to Lionel's childhood, especially the scene with the penguins.
* {{Hollywood Tourettes}}: Lionel actually has a pretty realistic depiction of Tourette's, focusing mainly on tics rather than the usual coprolalia.
* {{In Love With The Gangsters Girl}}: Technically, Lionel and Frank's wife don't hook up until after his death but later it's revealed that [[spoiler:Julia has had relations with every one of the Minna Men]].
* {{Jewish Mother}}: "Irving, when are you coming home?"[[spoiler: The joke actually reveals the answer to the mystery of Frank Minna]]
* {{Missing Mom}}: Every Minna Man.
* {{Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters}}: Frank obviously has good relations with the community he operates out of as he's able to go to the local orphanage to find new recruits.

* {{Sibling Triangle}}: Between [[spoiler: Frank, Julia and Girard Menna]]; also between [[spoiler:the various Minna Men and Julia, except the Minna are emotional brothers rather than biological.]]

* {{Verbal Tic}}: Lionel Essrog obviously, particularly with ""Eatmebailey""
* {{What Now Ending}}:So Lionel's solved Frank's murder but [[spoiler: Kimmery leaves him, he doesn't know if he's imagined Ullman or not, the closest thing he has to a family has dispersed around him and his entire father/son relationship with Minna has been called into question]] kind of a downer actually.
* {{Yakuza}}: at the end, [[spoiler:when Lionel travels to Maine to confront Julia, the yakuza are rumored to have taken over the local fishing industry]].

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) was planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Creator/EdwardNorton. It's slated for release on November 1st, 2019.

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) was planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Edward Norton. It's slated for release on November 1st, 2019.

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) wass planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Edward Norton. It's slated for release on November 1st, 2019.

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) wass planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Edward Norton. It's slated for release
on November 1st, 2019.

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) wass planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Edward Norton. It ended up being released on November 1st, 2019.

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) is planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Edward Norton.

''Motherless Brooklyn'' is a postmodern novel by Creator/JonathanLethem which tells the tale of Lionel Essrog, low level gangster/detective extraordinary, afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. Essrog works for Brooklyn Gangster Frank Minna, as one of his Minna Men, along with three boys he grew up with in a Brooklyn orphanage. When Frank is killed, Lionel takes it upon himself to solve the crime. Taking his ques from hard boiled detective films, Lionel finds himself making enemies of elderly mobsters and a zen Buddhist center. The mystery deepens when Lionel becomes involved with Minna's ex wife as well as Buddist practitioner Kim, and learns more about his old boss and father figure than he ever thought possible.

* {{New York City}}: Um... yeah.

* {{Shout Out}}: Oh my god, so many shout outs.
***Lionel listens to {{Prince}}'s "How Come U Don't Call Me Any More" after Minna's death.
***Minna compares Tony to {{Scar Face}}
***Gilbert's coat makes him look like the Michelin Man or The Red Queen from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.
***There's also {{James Bond}}, {{Superman}} Tourette's compared to being {{The Invisible Man}} and all this in the first 100 pages.

* {{Jewish Mother}}: "Irving, when are you coming home?"
[[spoiler: the joke actually reveals the answer to the mystery of Frank Minna]]

* {{The Woobie}}: The orphan with tourette's whose {{parental substitute}} is killed when Lionel is supposed to be watching out for him. He spends the rest of the book trying to solve the murder, only to be undermined constantly by people he has viewed as family and then find out that his relationship with said parental substitute is not entirely what he thought.

It's a sweet, exciting, kind of sad story that won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 200 Gold Dagger award for Crime fiction. A film adaptation (set in the 1950s) is planned to be released in 2013, directed, adapted and starring Edward Norton.

!! This book contains examples of:

* {{A Father to His Men}}: Frank Minna to Lionel, arguably the rest of the Minna Men, at least at the start of their relationship.

* {{Genre Savvy}}: Everyone arguably. They all act as if they are part of a detective novel which... they are.

* {{Sibling Triangle}}: Between [[spoiler: Frank, Julia and Girard Menna]]; also arguably between [[spoiler:the various Minna Men and Julia, except the Minna are emotional brothers rather than biological.]]

!!! This book contains examples of:

Motherless Brooklyn is a postmodern novel by Jonathan Lethem which tells the tale of Lionel Essrog, low level gangster/detective extraordinary, afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. Essrog works for Brooklyn Gangster Frank Minna, as one of his Minna Men, along with three boys he grew up with in a Brooklyn orphanage. When Frank is killed, Lionel takes it upon himself to solve the crime. Taking his ques from hard boiled detective films, Lionel finds himself making enemies of elderly mobsters and a zen Buddhist center. The mystery deepens when Lionel becomes involved with Minna's ex wife as well as Buddist practitioner Kim, and learns more about his old boss and father figure than he ever thought possible.

***Gilbert's coat makes him look like the Michelin Man or The Red Queen from {{Alice in Wonderland}}.

*Lionel listens to {{Prince}}'s "How Come U Don't Call Me Any More" after Minna's death.
*Minna compares Tony to {{Scar Face}}
*Gilbert's coat makes him look like the Michelin Man or The Red Queen from {{Alice in Wonderland}}.
*There's also {{James Bond}}, {{Superman}} Tourette's compared to being {{The Invisible Man}} and all this in the first 100 pages.

* {{Shout Out}}: Oh my god, so many shout outs. Lionel listens to {{Prince}}'s "How Come U Don't Call Me Any More" after Minna's death. Minna compares Tony to {{Scar Face}} Gilbert's coat makes him look like the Michelin Man or The Red Queen from {{Alice in Wonderland}}. There's also {{James Bond}}, {{Superman}} Tourette's compared to being {{The Invisible Man}} and all this in the first 100 pages.

* {{Shout Outs}}: Oh my god, so many shout outs. Lionel listens to {{Prince}}'s "How Come U Don't Call Me Any More" after Minna's death. Minna compares Tony to {{Scar Face}} Gilbert's coat makes him look like the Michelin Man or The Red Queen from {{Alice in Wonderland}}. There's also {{James Bond}}, {{Superman}} Tourette's compared to being {{The Invisible Man}} and all this in the first 100 pages.

* {{ Aloof Big Brother}}: Girard to Frank. Tony and Danny to Lionel and Gilbert.