As a mainstream exploration of racial issues in America, it's a pretty good book. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the urban sections (being a country boy myself), but it feels real, and Lethem does a wonderful job with the bits I can recognize (his evocation of the mindset of a terrorized middle-schooler is great, and some of the college bits are dead-on as well).

The big problem with the book is that it doesn't stop there. There's also a weird magic-realist sort of plot, involving a magical ring Dylan obtains from a bum. The ring grants the wearer the power of flight, and Dylan sets out (eventually enlisting Mingus's help) to become a costumed superhero. There are wonderful bits here (the way they end up finding crimes to fight is terrific), and somebody could make a really fun novel (or, perhaps more appropriately, a comic book) out of the concept, but this plot doesn't really fit well with the other. It's not really integrated with the coming-of-age story at the heart of the book, and the attempts to integrate it all feel badly out of place.

This was a decidedly odd reading experience, which has helped delay this book log entry by a few weeks, as I struggled to find something coherent to say about it (the Wonder Dog hasn't really helped, either-- it's hard to type when a really cute dog keeps nudging your arm to ask for attention). There are some wonderful pieces here (Dylan's father's career as a Hugo-winning artist is wonderfully entertaining if you lived through the Usenet debate over Lethem's opinions on SF cover art), but the attempt to make them fit together isn't entirely successful, and ultimately lessens the impact. It's still a very, very good book, and worth reading, but in the end, it's fundamentally flawed.