You Don't Love Me Yet

The acclaimed author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn turns a keen, affectionate eye on the paradoxes of love and art in this romantic farce set among the members of an aspiring Los Angeles rock band.

Lucinda Hoekke works eight excruciating hours a day at The Complaint Line, listening to anonymous callers air their random grievances. But one frequent caller, who insists on speaking only to her, starts to captivate Lucinda with his off-colour ruminations and opaque self-reflections. In defiance of the rules, Lucinda and 'The Complainer' arrange a face-to-face meeting - and fall desperately in love.

Lucinda also plays bass in an alternative band, whose lead singer, Matthew, works at a zoo and recently kidnapped a kangaroo to save it from ennui. (Drummer Denise has a yet stranger gig at a masturbation boutique called No Shame.) Their gifted-but-conflicted lyricist, Bedwin, is suffering from writer's block, and so Lucinda 'suggests' to him some of The Complainer's philosophical musings. When Bedwin transforms these into brilliant songs, the band gets its big break, a slot on LA's premiere alternative radio show. The only problem is The Complainer, who insists on joining the band, with disastrous consequences for all.

A comedy of plagiarism, usurpation, and sex, with delicious echoes of A Midsummer Night's Dream , You Don't Love Me Yet is another exhibition of Jonathan Lethem's prodigious range and talent.