Chronic City
Encyclopedia
Summary
Lethem began work on Chronic City in early 2007, and has said that the novel is "set on the Upper East SideUpper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, it’s strongly influenced by Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
, Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, Charles Finney
Charles G. Finney
Charles G. Finney was an American fantasy novelist and newspaperman. His full name was Charles Grandison Finney, evidently in honor of his great-grandfather, famous evangelist Charles Grandison Finney.-Biography:...
and Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
’s Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
, and it concerns a circle of friends including a faded child-star actor, a cultural critic, a hack ghost-writer of autobiographies, and a city official."
Plot Outline
It all starts when Chase Insteadman, an actor whose career seems to be over (he became popular thanks to a sitcom when he was a boy) accidentally meets Perkus Tooth, once a promising critic, now barely surviving by writing liner notes for CDs and DVDs. Perkus has unconventional opinions on almost everything, especially Marlon BrandoMarlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, and is glad to express them; Chase contents himself with listening to his new friend. Much of the first part of the novel is pivoted upon Perkus' speeches and Chase's thoughts about them. In this part of the novel readers also meet Perkus' friends: Oona Laszlo, a ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
; Richard Abneg, former squatter, now working for the powerful NYC mayor (who seems to be a fictional portrait of Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
); Biller, a black hobo who unexpectedly turns into Internet wizard; Georgina Hawkmanaji, a Turkish heiress.
Strange things happen in the NYC depicted in the novel; a mysterious tiger randomly destroys buildings and underground stations; a grey fog envelopes Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
; people are fascinated by mysterious chaldrons, gorgeous vases that are only seen in pictures, because nobody seems to have ever seen the originals; people keep asking Chase about his fiancée, Janice Trumbull, stranded on the orbital space station, even though he cannot remember anything of the woman but her letters. On the other hand, nothing really important seems to happen in the plot, with the characters living their ordinary lives, unconventional as they may be. But then the tiger strikes Perkus' favorite hamburger joint, and damages the building he lives in; this suddenly turns him into a hobo, and sets in motion a chain of events which will bring the novel to its conclusion—and to several final revelations.