The Fortress of Solitude.

THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. Jonathan Lethem. 2003. Read by David Aaron Baker. 15 cds. No time listed. Books on Tape. 0-7366-9527-3. $112.00. Vinyl; plot notes. A* This is a brilliant romp through Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s as neighborhoods once black and Hispanic slowly gentrify. Dylan Ebdus and his parents, hippie and artistic, are precursors to the later-arriving yuppies. They, too, oppose gentrification and feel they are offering their son a "cultural opportunity" in sending him to public schools where he is a minority as a "white boy." Dylan suffers daily fear and humiliation in "yokings" by the black kids. His mother abandons the family and Dylan makes friends with another motherless boy, Mingus Rude, whose father is a drug-addled soul musician. Mingus, a mixed-race child, has the juice and the presence to spare Dylan even worse grief from his peers once the friendship becomes public. The boys spend happy hours in a common obsession with superhero comic books. In a stunning departure from the novel's realism, a ring given to the boys by a dying bum bestows magical powers. This delightful twist works, without the slightest compromise to the serious theme of the complexity of racial and cultural intermingling.

Baker is a superb narrator, easily moving between dialects and giving distinction to a wide array of characters. He acts, he raps, he sings--this is genius narration! The novel chronicles styles of music, from soul to hip-hop to punk. It also chronicles the devastation of drugs upon lives as the young men move from comic books and stickball to drug use, drug dealing, and prison. This production is sprawling but also unique, raw, comic, sad and oh-so-real. This is a work to engage mature YAs and would provide excellent material for cultural studies. Nancy Chaplin, Libn., VCCW, Goochland, VA