THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE: Jonathan Lethem is an expert at documenting a Brooklyn perched on the edge of gentrification, having grown up in Gowanus-turned-Boerum Hill in the 1960s and '70s. The Fortress of Solitude, loosely based on Lethem's childhood, digs into the racial and economic tension that characterized that period. Here, white kid Dylan Ebdus navigates his teenage years after his hippie mother's recent abandonment, befriending the black Mingus Rude, the white Arthur Lomb, and surviving adolescence through a combination of comic books and marijuana. It's an interesting read, especially considering the Boerum Hill transformation we know today—indeed, when Dylan returns to his neighborhood decades later, he sees shades of theoverpriced, overhyped Brooklyn Brand we know too well today.