Writer Jonathan Lethem was on the Lopate Show recently to discuss the relationship between the novel and contemporary culture... and he also shared what his favorite comfort food is!

Jonathan Lethem talks about the relationship between the novel and contemporary culture. In The Ecstasy of Influence, a collection of new and previously published essays, he looks at the role of the writer as public intellectual, tackling topics from sex in cinema to drugs, graffiti, Bob Dylan, cyberculture, 9/11, book touring, and Marlon Brando, as well as his literary models.

Science fiction author Philip K. Dick died in 1983 at 53 years old. His cultural influence is everywhere, from box office hits like "Minority Report," to the novels of the late David Foster Wallace. His dark, twisted stories about drugs, psychological disorders, and government conspiracies have won awards and left an impression on the science fiction landscape.

Pop music often plays an important role in the novels of Jonathan Lethem. But the Brooklyn native’s new essay collection, The Ecstasy of Influence, finds real-life musicians stealing the show. Lethem joins us to explain what it was like to interview James Brown and Bob Dylan, and why the Go-Betweens are his favorite band.

Pass it on! This week on Soundcheck, four authors pass along an album recommendation in a chain-like fashion to the next day's guest. Today, author Jonathan Lethem leaves behind his pick for tomorrow’s guest, music critic Alex Ross of The New Yorker.

For this week’s Underappreciated segment, Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, and Chronic City, discusses L. J. Davis's 1971 novel, A Meaningful Life. It’s about a failed writer who attempts to channel his creative energy into real estate, in the form of a decaying Brooklyn mansion-turned-rooming house he buys in the late 1960s. The novel raises questions about gentrification that are still relevant today. Lethem wrote the introduction for New York Review Books release of the novel, grew up down the block from Davis in Boerum Hill.

Patti Smith spoke with Jonathan Lethem about writing, CBGB, and New York nostalgia for the PEN World Voice Festival. Listen to their conversation and Smith's song about William Blake.

Russian poet Inga Kuznetsova, Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo, Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk and New York's own Jonathan Lethem talked about utopia and dystopia for the PEN World Voice Festival. Listen to the event here.

When the music writer Paul Nelson died in 2006, few people remembered who he was: one of the first to champion a young Bob Dylan, an influential contributor to magazines like Rolling Stone and Sing Out! -- and the guy who dared to sign the New York Dolls to a ...

Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, discusses his new novel, Chronic City, a story about Manhattanites wrapped in their own world.

Events: Jonathan Lethem will be reading and answering questions with Colson Whitehead, as part of the New Yorker Festival
Friday, October 16, ...

More than two dozen stories are included in this year's "Best Music Writing" anthology. Among them: Novelist Jonathan Lethem’s in-depth portrait of the legendary James Brown and Pitchfork Media writer Nitsuh Abebe's profile of indie hero Daniel Johnston. We’ll talk with Lethem, Abebe, and the book's guest editor, rock critic ...

Novelist Jonathan Lethem tells Kurt what Superman has in common with the young hero of his book, The Fortress of Solitude. He also explains how losing his mother when he was a teenager shaped his writing.

Kurt Andersen and writer Jonathan Lethem look at musicians, writers and artists who embrace solitude. Some exile themselves, others don’t have a choice. Either way, the experience of being alone affects their art and their personal lives.

A native of New York City, Jonathan Lethem is famous for ...

A native of New York City, Jonathan Lethem is famous for turning genres like science fiction and detective stories inside out. He is the author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, which received the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction in ...