His latest book is crap—in my mind anyway. Jonathan Lethem’s The Arrest takes place in the near future, some years after everything stops. You know, everything: electronics, motors, hydraulics, solar power, indoor plumbing. Amenities, creature comforts. It all stops, but you never learn why. Witchcraft is my guess. As good a reason as anything else.

The cartoon cover should have been my clue, and it almost was. It drew an eye-roll, but then I read the back cover; they called it a dystopian story. I’m a sucker for dystopian. But here’s the thing, they actually portrayed a utopia. An agrarian society, bicycles as transport, homemade wine, bushels of weed, a community library. It all seemed pretty A-OK to me. But of course, there was the stupid car on the cover. And around that stupid car sat a stupid plot. Whatever. I gutted through the book, the whole way wondering why…