More Alive and Less Lonely

On Books and Writers

Jonathan Lethem

Edited by Christopher Boucher

“Lethem is literature’s ultimate fanboy… [His] earnestness is satisfying, but it’s his vulnerability, his willingness to expose his own flaws, that endears… Lethem’s words remind of us of our own rabid fandoms.” —The New York Times

A readerly wake-up call from one of America’s finest and most acclaimed working writers. Picking up where his NBCC Award finalist collection The Ecstasy of Influence left off, More Alive and Less Lonely collects more than a decade of Lethem’s finest writing on writing, with new and previously unpublished material, including: impassioned appeals for forgotten writers and overlooked books, razor-sharp essays, and personal accounts of his most extraordinary literary encounters and discoveries.

Only Lethem, with his love of cult favorites and the canon alike, can write with equal insight about the stories of modern masters like Lorrie Moore and Salman Rushdie, graphic novelist Chester Brown, science fiction outlier Philip K. Dick, and classic icons like Moby-Dick.

Edited by novelist Christopher Boucher (Golden Delicious), More Alive and Less Lonely deserves a place on every serious reader’s bookshelf. Lethem’s joyful approach to literature will inspire you to dive back into your favorite books and then point you towards what to read next.

JONATHAN LETHEM is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Dissident Gardens, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn; three short story collections; and two essay collections, including The Ecstasy of Influence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Lethem’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and the New York Times, among other publications.

Editor CHRISTOPHER BOUCHER is a professor of English at Boston College, editor of Post Road magazine, and author of the novels How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and Golden Delicious, both from Melville House.

“Incisive, colorful, and insightful…beguiling.” —Publishers Weekly

“Thoughtful and often sly…[A] standout collection.” —Kirkus Reviews

“One of America’s finest novelists.” — Kirkus Reviews

“…the poet of Brooklyn and of motherless boys.” — Publishers Weekly

“…as sharp a critic as he is a novelist.” — Austin American-Statesman

“When it comes to style, Lethem has few equals.” — Miami Herald

“[A] writer who resists pigeonholing…. it’s hard to remain unsusceptible to his euphoria.” — Los Angeles Times