From a conversation at slate.com about Jonathan Lethem‘s new novel, The Fortress of Solitude:
That’s why the book ends with a flashback to a drive home with Abraham after Dylan gets kicked out of college. They’re listening to Brian Eno in a snowstorm, and Dylan turns to Abraham and asks, “Do you hear it? How great it is?” Sure, Abraham says, idly. “But do you really hear what I’m hearing? Can you hear the same song I do?” Dylan persists. The book, as a whole, is about trying to find someone who hears the same song you do, and realizing you never will; or that, if you do, you’ll never fully know it.Dylan is Dylan Ebdus, one of the book’s two protagonists, and Abraham is Dylan’s distant father, a painter.