The cast makes for a heady, swirly mix of fascinating, lonely people. Lethem’s writing, as always, packs a witty punch. The epoch each character inhabits is artfully etched and the book is as illuminating of 20th-century American history as it is of the human burden of overcoming alienation.
Publisher's Weekly
Lethem is breathtaking in this torrent of potent voices, searing ironies, popculture allusions, and tragicomic complexities. He shreds the folk scene, eviscerates quiz shows...and offers unusual perspectives on societal debacles and tragic injustices. A righteous, stupendously involving novel about the personal toll of failed political movements and the perplexing obstacles to doing good.
Booklist (starred review)
Lethem has written a brilliant, funny, compendious novel at whose heart lies a sharp, slim blade of thought and style.
- Rachel Cusk, Guardian
Superb… <i>Dissident Gardens </i>can be placed squarely in the canon of the great American social novel.
- Ayana Mathis, Financial Times
This epic family novel criss-crosses generations from the Fifties to the present day.
Tatler