Jonathan Lethem Reading at Coolidge Corner

Jonathan Lethem will be reading from You Don't Love Me Yet at Coolidge Corner (via Brookline Booksmith) on Tuesday, March 27, at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $2.

Jonathan Lethem's raked in awards galore, and you'd think he'd try to top himself in scope of subject matter and heavy meaning with each book. Instead, he turns to the little world of a no-name band trying to make it in Los Angeles, and he continues to stake out new ground beyond his beginnings in science fiction and the Brooklyn turf he's also covered in his past books.

Sci-fi covers imaginary worlds while offering broader social commentary, but you might think the hipster musicians of You Don't Love Me Yet are awfully familiar. The members of the unnamed band are so cool that they can't even give their band a name. Nor can they figure out how to separate business from pleasure.

The characters seem like the type of people who could stand to stop thinking they're the center of the universe, but critics have been pleased with Lethem's approach. He also throws in one touch we particularly like, in which Lethem takes a help line to the next level. A main character takes a job answering a "Complaint Line" that is set up as part of an art project, and she strikes up a romance with one of her more interesting callers. The complainer ends up playing a major part in the band's trajectory.

Some critics have considered Lethem's latest not heavy enough compared to his past work, but the book has earned comparisons to Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One. Since we're still vulnerable to snowstorms, we're not looking for heavy, and we'd recommend that you let Lethem take you on a quick mental vacation to Los Angeles via this clever book.

Since the book is about the music scene, the night wouldn't be complete without a performance. Delish fuzz-pop local band Hallelujah the Hills will round out the evening by performing a song based on the book, and the first 50 people to buy the book will get a free Hallelujah the Hills CD.

Image of the cover of You Don't Love Me Yet from Amazon.