The Fortress of Solitude
This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first whispers of something that will become known as "gentrification." This is the story of 1970s America, a time when the most simple human decisions—what music you listen to, whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give up your lunch money—are laden with potential political, social and racial disaster. This is the story of 1990s America, when no one cared anymore. This is the story of punk, that easy white rebellion, and crack, that monstrous plague. This is the story of the loneliness of the avant-garde artist and the exuberance of the graffiti artist. This is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually had superpowers: They would screw up their lives. This is the story of joyous afternoons of stickball and dreaded years of schoolyard extortion. This is the story of belonging to a society that doesn't accept you. This is the story
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Fortress of Solitude
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Dylan Ebdus, a white kid in 1970s Boerum Hill Brooklyn, and Mingus Rude, the Black boy across the street, grow up together through tagging, music, and the racial politics of the block. A magic ring left by Mingus's father lets them fly.
The Fortress of Solitude was written by Jonathan Lethem and published in 2003. It is widely considered one of the great American novels of the early 21st century, addressing race, friendship, and 1970s Brooklyn.
Both novels are by Jonathan Lethem and set in Brooklyn, but they differ significantly. Motherless Brooklyn (1999) is a noir mystery with Tourette's-syndrome detective; The Fortress of Solitude is a sweeping coming-of-age literary novel.
The Fortress of Solitude is 528 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Fortress of Solitude takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
The Fortress of Solitude is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Fortress of Solitude is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.