In a video interview with BEA Live!, Jonathan Lethem says of Dissident Gardens, “This book is a family saga set in Queens, and it’s about the mysteries – to me, as a kid, growing up – of the kind of radical past of my grandmother’s life. So it’s about the American Communist Party and the people who were sort of entrenched in this disgraced tradition. By the time I came along, they weren’t talking about it, but the silence was very fascinating to me.”
Zoë Triska, the Books Editor at The Huffington Post, asks Lethem: “What is the one book or author that you recommend everyone read?”
Lethem responds, “I come home – again and again – to Charles Dickens. I think in some ways, he’s the one who – whether you like it or not – creates the world, the kind of writing I do, the kind of novel most of us care about, it all originates there. He’s so amazing. If you’re feeling some resistance, get an audiobook. It’s so enthralling to listen to Dickens in the car.”
