WRITE ON - NY Post.

Darryl Livingston

21 September 2008

WHEN Jonathan Lethem, writer of such celebrated stories as Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, received an offer from one of his fave musicians to collaborate, all his literary talent did small to make rock n roll a simple fit. I didnt take it seriously at first, claims Lethem, who grouped with Walter Salas-Humara of the Silos. He doesn't need [me] tinkering with his work. But when they sat down to split their thoughts, concepts flew, and the result's a new musical collective called Im Not Jim, which just released its first album, you are All My Folk .

For Lethem, the challenge of writing songs was that, as a nonmusician, he couldnt communicate his concepts in the musicians common language. What I was doing quite frequently was pronouncing, Make this one sound like Spoon, or, Why are Velvet Underground songs always so great? What is it theyre doing? Are we able to do that?

But considering the extended depth and power of novel writing, the project was kind of a well-earned break for the writer. With a novel, you are working on such an incredible extent of material, with different pieces of language, moods and characters. Its like you are making a virtual fact, he asserts. Whats appealing about pop music is you are making an artifact - a bright object. Its like making an attempt to invent a lightning bug.