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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
DeLillo's writing is, to me, comparable to wind on a winter's day. It's cold, determined, impartial, and all-encompassing. He's not one of my favorite authors, but very few authors can work the same magic as him, and very few authors would write a book like this one.
Lovers of plot, beware. Closure-junkies, stay far away. Emotional connection seekers, read something else. Fans of experimentation, prose-addicts, idea maniacs, eat your heart out.
Lovers of plot, beware. Closure-junkies, stay far away. Emotional connection seekers, read something else. Fans of experimentation, prose-addicts, idea maniacs, eat your heart out.
I had no expectations or forknowledge of the topic, which turned out to be a meditation on death and dissolution and an inability to fully enage with life. I may read it again with a more analytical eye, or someday while off the grid in a desert cabin.
Unenomainen ja koruttomasti kerrottu pienoisromaani kahdesta miehestä - Richard Elsteristä ja Jim Finleystä. Elster on entinen puolustusministerin neuvonantaja, joka uransa aikana perehtyi lukuisiin valtion salaisiin dokumentteihin. Lopulta Elster vetäytyy erämaan yksinäisyyteen asumaan. Jim Finley haluaa tehdä dokumentin Elsteristä, vain mies ja seinä ja kaikki otettaisiin purkkiin yhdellä otoksella. Jim matkustaa erämaahan Elsterin luo ja vierailu muuttuu päivä reissusta viikon reissuksi, kunnes aika vain kuluu. Elsterin tyttären Jessie saapuminen talolle pistää pakan sekaisin ja potin räjäyttää lopullisesti tyttären katoaminen. En pidä unenomaisuudesta, mutta kuitenkin tämä oli kaikessa lyhykäisyydessään traaginen ja vihlaiseva tarina. Kirjan tunnelma oli ainutlaatuinen ja kiehtova. Haluan tutustua muihinkin miehen teoksiin.
Pondering of the present moment and a reminder to just be, yet the message altogether undercut by its own lack of presence.
"We want to be the dead matter we used to be. We’re the last billionth of a second in the evolution of matter.”
DeLillo’s whole thing encapsulated in two sentences. The Greatest Living Novelist
DeLillo’s whole thing encapsulated in two sentences. The Greatest Living Novelist
The work of highly successful artists is often described in the work's place in time relative to the artist's career. Thus you have early Picasso, late-period Beethoven. Sometimes the word vintage is employed as in, "*Jaws* is vintage Speilberg…" Writers seem to fare less well than their non-literary counterparts as their careers mature. Late-period Beethoven could be summed up by terms masterful, exquisite and revolutionary. Picasso never stopped innovating and only in very old age, right at the end, did he struggle and fail. My perception is that writers seldom get a glittering third act. Maybe time and further reading will prove me wrong. DeLillo seems to have the reputation of the artist whose best work is strictly in the rear-view mirror. I don't agree.
Centered on a trio of characters, this novella seems to vibrate with what must be a distinct Delilloness. I felt it in *White Noise* and I felt it here in this compact story of an experimental filmmaker (whose career it seems will never have a second act, let alone a late-period/vintage/revolutionary phase); a fading, retired military scholar — the intended subject of the filmmaker's new project; and the scholar's disturbed daughter. My overall impression is much the same as it was for *White Noise*. Somehow I sense that DeLillo is playing three-dimensional chess, and while I might be stuck playing checkers, I can feel the genius in his work. I will leave in-depth interpretation of the book up to readers more familiar with his entire body of work. All I can offer is an assertion that whatever skill you can identify on the page is just the tip of the iceberg. The uneasy, almost other-worldly quality and the characters which practically slip from the page they are so alive attest to much more going on than meets the eye.
If anything, reading this short work convinces me that DeLillo deserves a full hearing, that I owe it to him and to myself to read all his books. I started *Underworld* as a teenager, loved it even then, but stopped for whatever reasons. Let's blame it on the hormones. *Mao* and *Libra* have been on my (virtual) shelf forever. I will now try to make my way through the entire heap. I can't offer a higher recommendation than to say it makes me want to read more.
Centered on a trio of characters, this novella seems to vibrate with what must be a distinct Delilloness. I felt it in *White Noise* and I felt it here in this compact story of an experimental filmmaker (whose career it seems will never have a second act, let alone a late-period/vintage/revolutionary phase); a fading, retired military scholar — the intended subject of the filmmaker's new project; and the scholar's disturbed daughter. My overall impression is much the same as it was for *White Noise*. Somehow I sense that DeLillo is playing three-dimensional chess, and while I might be stuck playing checkers, I can feel the genius in his work. I will leave in-depth interpretation of the book up to readers more familiar with his entire body of work. All I can offer is an assertion that whatever skill you can identify on the page is just the tip of the iceberg. The uneasy, almost other-worldly quality and the characters which practically slip from the page they are so alive attest to much more going on than meets the eye.
If anything, reading this short work convinces me that DeLillo deserves a full hearing, that I owe it to him and to myself to read all his books. I started *Underworld* as a teenager, loved it even then, but stopped for whatever reasons. Let's blame it on the hormones. *Mao* and *Libra* have been on my (virtual) shelf forever. I will now try to make my way through the entire heap. I can't offer a higher recommendation than to say it makes me want to read more.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
I change my mind about this book every time I re-read it. But I’ve now read it twice in 1 month, so, safe to say it’s good.