"Men and Cartoons" by Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem is one of the most distinctive and inventive writers of fiction today. From "Gun with Occasional Music" to "You Don't Love Me Yet," Lethem has shown an uncanny ability to transport readers into a world that, upon reflection, is incredibly strange but at the same time feels right.

"Men and Cartoons," Lethem's second collection of short stories, shows the (many) strengths of his writing, but also the danger in letting his fertile imagination run wild. The nine stories in the book are all beautifully written if uneven.

"The Vision" and "Vivian Relf" show the wistful evocation of earlier times that Lethem used to great effect in his latest, and best known works, "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Fortress of Solitude," as he evokes the follies and foibles of youth and how they hang on into adulthood. Along with "Super Goat Man," there is the powerful undercurrent of regret and nostalgia that haunts his best work.

"The Spray" and "Access Fantasy" tap the same veins, but show the powerful science fiction imagination that fueled Lethem's earlier work and were showed to great effect in his short story collection "The Wall of Sky, the Wall of Eye." The latter story also shows the potential weakness of being so inventive- wonderful ideas not fully realized. Perhaps we are meant to take the existence of the One-Way Permeable Barrier for granted, but a little more on it might have helped the story hang together better.

"The Dystopianist" is an interesting vignette of what might happen were a writer to be visited, even briefly, by his creations. The stark realism with which the story is written stands in relief to the absurdity and surrealism of the story. Other stories in the book, though well-written, failed to leave much impression.

Taken as a whole, "Men and Cartoons" is a wonderful collection of stories by a masterful writer. Readers who have never read Lethem can get a sample of the variety of styles he uses, while old readers can get a Lethem fix.