You Don't Love Me Yet

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You Don't Love Me Yet (2007) is a comic novel about alternative music from Jonathan Lethem, set in modern Los Angeles.

[edit] Plot Summary

Lucinda Hoekke is a underemployed woman in her late twenties, playing bass in a fledgling Los Angeles rock group. There are three other members: Matthew, the group's lead singer and Lucinda's ex-boyfriend, kidnaps a kangaroo from the local zoo to save it from boredom. Denise, the clear-headed drummer, works at "No Shame," a sex shop. Bedwin is the group's composer and lead guitarist, but he is very fragile and suffers from writers block, watching the same Fritz Lang movie again and again and forgetting to eat.

Lucinda takes a job at a "Complaint Line," a performance art project, listening to anonymous callers talk about ther wide-ranging grievances. She falls for a regular caller, initially known only as the "Complainer." who amuses her with his acerbic reflections about life and self-deprecating humor. She begins using his musings as song lyrics, inspiring her band to new heights of creativity. Soon she becomes obsessed with the complainer, whose name is Carl, and begins an unstable all-consuming love affair with him.

The band's unexpectedly successful performance at a loft party leads to an invitation to appear live on Los Angeles' leading alternative music radio program. However, Carl, who uses his lyrics to force his way into the band, disrupts their radio broadcast, leading to romantic and musical consequences.

[edit] Reception and Analysis

You Don't Love Me Yet received mixed reviews. In his promotional appearance at Google Lethem attributed this reaction to the novel's intentionally silly and light tone. He claimed that the novel was supposed to follow the form of a romantic comedy and was his most "funny" and "sexy" book. He argued that the novel's central theme was the mystery of artistic influence, borrowing and collaboration, the individual artists murky relationship to the world around him. He thought that this theme could best be explored in the context of a rock band, since band members are often much greater artists collectively than they are as individuals in a way that is difficult to explain clearly. He also noted that musicians often borrow banal pieces of popular culture and give them new and exciting meanings.