Although Motherless Brooklyn is hardly a theological novel, Lionel’s dogged pursuit of Frank Minna’s killer juxtaposes his introduction to the differences between Western, generally Catholic, and Eastern, specifically Buddhist, perceptions of the cosmos. 

Western thought, epitomized by detection and police work, emphasizes control and transparency. It stresses that the universe is definable, that good and evil are identifiable. Mystery is the hobgoblin of minds closed to the reality of a controlling God designing the universe and directing its unfolding actions. The goal of Western religion is to decode the cosmos, impose causality on the universe, understand its operations, and, in turn, provide guidelines for right and moral living. 

Eastern thought, by contrast, emphasizes the wonder of mystery, the reality that individuals control nothing, and that the cosmos unfolds according to a complex interaction of luck and design. Within that cosmos, explanation is at best a distraction and at worst deeply and troublingly ironic because it prevents individuals from relishing the mystery of the now and finding peace in the chaos of the day to day. Life is not a riddle to be answered (like the jokes Lionel tells) but rather a koan (like the ones Kimmery relates), an occasion to ponder, to think, to meditate into a breathtaking moment of enlightenment.