THE ECSTASY OF INFLUENCE Nonfictions, Etc.

Author Jonathan Lethem pairs with Mark Deakins, whom Lethem calls his favorite narrator, in an excellent rendition of this sprawling, sometimes plodding, oftentimes sublime collection of essays, introductions, and reviews. A collection of “occasional pieces” is by nature a ragtag form. This one has a central theme—cultural influences—and the range and disparity of subjects are in this case a virtue. Lethem’s and Deakins’s voices are highly compatible, and you might not notice the difference except that Deakins’s is more polished and steady, Lethem’s more natural and more true to the text. There are excellent pieces on James Brown, Bob Dylan, and Lethem’s central theme of plagiarism and “sampling,” in which he shows once again the novelist’s ability to open and shape our outlook. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2012]