[On Fortress of Solitude, from October 2003.]

Jonathan Lethem uses “you” a great deal — as in “That sound might come out of your own body one of these days.” “You” appears as often as “him,” and it is Lethem’s way of collectivizing Dylan’s experiences, of turning solo into anthem. It is a persuasive device, because Dylan seems to spend all of his time with others and so little on his own. This creates problems for the book, problems of interiority and characterization. Lethem’s use of “you” takes the ignorance and the innocence of childhood “truths” and makes them group-knowing, just as children ignorantly are; and their annunciation in turn only reveals how fundamentally unknowing the group really is.