You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem

In his sixth novel, You Don't Love Me Yet, it's hard to tell if Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude; Motherless Brooklyn) is taking the piss or slightly out of his element. The Brooklyn boy takes on LA and if your not from there it's a little like using the "N" word if you're not black, stupid at best. He gets a lot of it right, but it is over the top and this is where it gets suspect. The story revolves around a nascent band and it's bass player, Lucinda. She works days answering a "complaint line' that is a conceptual art piece dreamed up by one of her ex-lovers, a boring gallery owner with plenty of money and all day to spend it (this rings true). Against all the rules she begins a relationship with one of the complainers, an overweight, hairy blob of a man (this does not ring true in image obsessed LA). He is a slogan writer (buying it) and Lucinda turns his stream of complaints into the beginnings of the bands first great lyrics (sort of buy it), but when he finds out he wants to join the band (not buying it) with disastrous consequences (funny). The rest of the characters are kids you could find anywhere and don't seem indigenous to LA in any way special. In fact, make the art less performance based, substitute the car journeys for subway trips and this story could easily be set in New York. So, LA inconsequential in my mind. What we have here is a funny story about trying to make it through your mid-20's and almost being great.