The four grow up to be the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective agency-cum-limo service, and their days and nights revolve around Frank, the prince of Brooklyn, who glides through life on street smarts, attitude, and secret knowledge. A local tough guy and fixer, Minna shows up to take Lionel and three of his fellow orphans on mysterious errands: they empty a store of stereos as the owner watches destroy a small amusement park visit old Italian men. The Human Freakshow, a victim of Tourette's syndrome (an uncontrollable urge to shout out nonsense, touch every surface in reach, rearrange objects), Frank Minna is a savior.

Vincent's Home for Boys, Brooklyn, early 1970s. This novel signals the coming of age of a major American writer. Indeed, Brooklyn-with its charming folkways and language, its unique style of bad-guy swagger and sentimentality-becomes itself a major character.Motherless Brooklyn is a bravura performance: funny, tense, touching, extravagant.

Not even The Human Freakshow.All of the Lethem touches that have thrilled critics are here-crackling dialogue, sly humor, dizzying plot twists-but they're secondary to wonderfully full, tragic, funny characterizations, and a dazzling evocation of place. No one-not Frank, not Frank's bitter wife, Julia, not the other Minna Men-is who they seem. Then one dreadful night, Frank is knifed and thrown into a Dumpster, and Lionel must become a real detective.As Lionel struggles to find Frank's killer-without letting his Tourette's get in the way-he's forced to delve into the complex, shadowy web of relationships, threats, and favors that make up the Brooklyn world he thought he knew so well.

Lethem motherless brooklyn