The Fortress of Solitude

Ranked #7 in Brooklyn, Ranked #10 in Graffitisee more rankings.

The Fortress of Solitude is the story of Dylan Ebdus growing up white and motherless in downtown Brooklyn in the 1970s. It's a neighborhood where the entertainments include muggings along with games of stoopball. In that world, Dylan has one friend, a black teenager, also motherless, named Mingus Rude. As Lethem follows the knitting and unraveling of their friendship, he creates an overwhelmingly rich and emotionally gripping canvas of race and class, superheros, gentrification, funk, hip-hop, graffiti tagging, loyalty, and memory. The Fortress of Solitude is the first great urban coming of... more

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Fortress of Solitude from the world's leading experts.

Jay McInerney Lethem was one of the first people to write about the new Brooklyn. This is a beautiful coming-of-age novel. (Source)

Bryan Callen So here are my three must read books. I've been reading a lot of great books like: Outsmart Your Instincts, The Culture Code, and Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order, and sometimes when you read a lot of nonfiction it’s very enriching, sometimes you need a novel. I really believe you should take a minute and read something beautiful. Listen, listen to Lolita by Nabokov. But also listen to Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and listen to Richard Poe narrate that. Those are two of the greatest feats of the english language that I can think of. Then there’s Fortress of Solitude, an amazing book,... (Source)


Rankings by Category

The Fortress of Solitude is ranked in the following categories:


Similar Books

If you like The Fortress of Solitude, check out these similar top-rated books:


Learn: What makes Shortform summaries the best in the world?