You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel (edit title)

• Rated 1 stars

“Completely detestable characters repeatedly making mistakes. And, for no apparent reason, a kangaroo.”

• Rated 1 stars

“Ugh. Ick. Bleh.”

• Rated 0 stars

“Lucinda Hoekke spends eight hours a day at the Complaint Line, listening to anonymous callers air their random grievances. Most of the time, the work is excruciatingly tedious. But one frequent caller, who insists on speaking only to Lucinda, captivates her with his off-color ruminations and opaque self-reflections. In blatant defiance of the rules, Lucinda and the Complainer arrange a face-to-face meeting — and fall desperately in love.

Consumed by passion, Lucinda manages only to tear herself away from the Complainer to practice with the alternative band in which she plays bass. The lead singer of the band is Matthew, a confused young man who works at the zoo and has kidnapped a kangaroo to save it from ennui. Denise, the drummer, works at No Shame, a masturbation boutique. The band's talented lyricist, Bedwin, conflicted about the group's as-yet-nonexistent fame, is suffering from writer's block. Hoping to recharge the band's creative energy, Lucinda "suggests" some of the Complainer's philosophical musings to Bedwin. When Bedwin transforms them into brilliant songs, the band gets its big break, including an invitation to appear on L.A.'s premiere alternative radio show. The only problem is the Complainer. He insists on joining the band, with disastrous consequences for all.

”

• Rated 4 stars

“I enjoyed that the superficiality of this book was mirrored by its setting: Los Angeles. For Letham a place is one of the characters. Something about the way this was written made my mind imagine each character sitting inside their car on the freeway at rush hour, moving forward a bit, stopping, looking around at what other people are doing a bit, talking on their phone, listening to music, and possibly going backwards a bit when choosing the wrong lane to change into. It seemed that characters only interacted in ones and twos, never in large groups and the conflict was strange enough for Letham, but truly only secondary and ultimately uncooperative with the dialogue. Maybe he did need a paycheck as other reviewers suggest or maybe he got tired of being described the same way by the same people. Much like the characters in this book: setting events in motion to produce a transformation....can that really be called a transformation? ”

• Rated 1 stars

“This was my first Jonathan Lethem, and I'm sorry I chose it. I should have gone straight for "Motherless Brooklyn" because "You Don't Love Me Yet" felt like an accomplished author's phoning it in for a book contract. I agree with other reader--I didn't care for the characters and didn't finish it. Rare. Some interesting elements, as if Lethem tried to like parts of the story, but clearly not where his heart was. A disappointment. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“I was disappointed by this book compared to other Lethem stuff I've read and loved. I didn't really care about the characters.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Ehh. I wanted to love it, but I couldn't get into it. I don't know why. The story just seemed so improbable and off, and not in a good way. The sex scenes were great, though LOL.”

• Rated 3 stars

“this book reminds me so much of the 90ies, of grunge and of that part of your life where you take yourself very seroiusly and everything has some kind of sympolism, even if it doesn´t. I didn´t quite finished it, because there were a lot of parts I didn´t care for, but some of the dialogue were great.”

• Rated 2 stars

“I didn't find this very comic or emotionally engaging. I stopped reading it early because I figured I had better ways to spend my time. That said, I can't judge it completely without finishing it.”

• Rated 2 stars

“I got bored with this and didn't finish. The characters were very self obsorbed and dull...”