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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
been reading this for months and finally finished it :) i don't get it and i can't pretend to even do so, it's so out of my depth
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
To sum this one up quickly: great prose, great ideas, interesting concepts, but it ultimately felt really hollow to me and I didn't much care.
Possibly this is something that I would have liked much more had I read it instead of listened to it. Who knows. As it is, I think it's just okay.
I think this is the third short work by DeLillo I've gone through and I haven't really liked any of them. I may not bother again.
Possibly this is something that I would have liked much more had I read it instead of listened to it. Who knows. As it is, I think it's just okay.
I think this is the third short work by DeLillo I've gone through and I haven't really liked any of them. I may not bother again.
challenging
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I can see why this book wouldn't do it for certain readers, but DeLillo's voice has always just washed deeply into the cracks in my soul, probing, questioning, wavering, and playing with the language he wields so uniquely.
Omega Point is probably closest to The Body Artist in terms of its simplicity and focus on a single character contemplating an ineffable, impossible artwork. If all that contemplation - vaguely meandering around unutterable truths of existence we can only hope to glimpse in moments of revelation, if at all - sounds like hard work, or pointless, then this definitely isn't the book for you. If, however, these inner workings are something you enjoy - the slow, ambiguous search for meaning or something similar - then this is one of his finest works: isolated, spare, bleak, broken.
Omega Point is probably closest to The Body Artist in terms of its simplicity and focus on a single character contemplating an ineffable, impossible artwork. If all that contemplation - vaguely meandering around unutterable truths of existence we can only hope to glimpse in moments of revelation, if at all - sounds like hard work, or pointless, then this definitely isn't the book for you. If, however, these inner workings are something you enjoy - the slow, ambiguous search for meaning or something similar - then this is one of his finest works: isolated, spare, bleak, broken.
Possibly DeLillo’s strongest post-Underworld work, it revised ideas from Players and Mao II.
Shades of Samuel Beckett cover the narration.
Shades of Samuel Beckett cover the narration.
If you're a reader who likes plot points neatly tied and convention followed, this book is not for you. Point Omega by Don DeLillo revolves around a character named Elster, who is an intellectual that was brought into the war effort around 2004. I can't think exactly who he is modeled on, but he's an apologist, a hawk, a salesman coming up with terms like "a haiku war," as if by changing the words we use to wage war we can change the context or identity of war.
Elster has quit the scene and escaped to a home in the desert when the reader meets him in the novel. He's out there with a man in his earl thirties, Jim Finley, a not so successful film maker, who wants to do an interview / monologue with Elster. Put the camera on the man and let him ramble for 90 minutes. Moreover, he worships Elster's intellect, even though Elster seems to be in a state of decline.
This narrative is sandwiched between two chapters called: Anonymity and Anonymity 2, which take place at the Museum of Modern Art where an installation of 24 Hour Pyscho is being played in a sparse, dark room. These two chapters are narrated by an anonymous man who comes to the installation for hours at a time every day. He is obsessed with the film, but also observes the other attendees. Is this nameless narrator just a passing stranger, or does he have something to do with the disappearance of Elster's daughter, Jessie?
I don't care how well this novel works or doesn't work. What I appreciate is that DeLillo is trying something new, and that he has enough caché for the book to be published. Point Omega ends with the reader wondering what may have happened; however, Elster and Finley are in the same quandary as the reader. Jessie, Elster's daughter who has been staying with them, has disappeared and no one knows what happened. Did she wander into the desert? Did she hitch a ride and run off somewhere? Was foul play involved? There are moments in life that will always be a mystery. We can conjecture, toss possibilities into the air, and ruminate, but ultimately we will never know. The book leaves the reader with these questions, and the mystery of Jessie's disappearance haunts for days to follow.
Elster has quit the scene and escaped to a home in the desert when the reader meets him in the novel. He's out there with a man in his earl thirties, Jim Finley, a not so successful film maker, who wants to do an interview / monologue with Elster. Put the camera on the man and let him ramble for 90 minutes. Moreover, he worships Elster's intellect, even though Elster seems to be in a state of decline.
This narrative is sandwiched between two chapters called: Anonymity and Anonymity 2, which take place at the Museum of Modern Art where an installation of 24 Hour Pyscho is being played in a sparse, dark room. These two chapters are narrated by an anonymous man who comes to the installation for hours at a time every day. He is obsessed with the film, but also observes the other attendees. Is this nameless narrator just a passing stranger, or does he have something to do with the disappearance of Elster's daughter, Jessie?
I don't care how well this novel works or doesn't work. What I appreciate is that DeLillo is trying something new, and that he has enough caché for the book to be published. Point Omega ends with the reader wondering what may have happened; however, Elster and Finley are in the same quandary as the reader. Jessie, Elster's daughter who has been staying with them, has disappeared and no one knows what happened. Did she wander into the desert? Did she hitch a ride and run off somewhere? Was foul play involved? There are moments in life that will always be a mystery. We can conjecture, toss possibilities into the air, and ruminate, but ultimately we will never know. The book leaves the reader with these questions, and the mystery of Jessie's disappearance haunts for days to follow.
“The desert was clairvoyant, this is what he'd always believed, that the landscape unravels and reveals, it knows future as well as past.”
Don DeLillo’s underrated novel, Point Omega, is another post-modern tale that is hard to define, praise, or recommend but is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
In the middle of a desert, somewhere near California, a filmmaker is attempting to interview an ex-CIA type. The pair of them dive head-first into obscurity.
Out of the DeLillo works I’ve read so far, Omega mostly reminded me of Mao II. I genuinely like novels with a protagonist that slowly becomes detached from society, and this was no different. Once again, the author made me puzzle over a number of elements, but eventually I felt very much satisfied by the end.
Of course, expecting a plot that is easy to follow is asking a lot from DeLillo. Much of what I enjoy about his works is about mood and sifting through the hidden layers. The key is not to be daunted by the ambiguous nature of the prose.
Themes of identify, technology, social interaction between humans, and the vast detachment between governmental institutions with the masses they supposedly serve are explored.
Clearly, this type of literature drives some people to despair. Many immediately ridicule it by stating it’s pretentious or pointless, and I get that, I really do, but I don’t care, because the message, however vague, is a poignant one that resonates with my disillusionment for modern life.
The works of Don DeLillo, much like where the protagonists find themselves in the novel, is a place where I can comfortably lose myself in.
“We're a crowd, a swarm. We think in groups, travel in armies. Armies carry the gene for self-destruction. One bomb is never enough. The blur of technology, this is where the oracles plot their wars. Because now comes the introversion. Father Teilhard knew this, the omega point. A leap out of our biology. Ask yourself this question. Do we have to be human forever? Consciousness is exhausted. Back now to inorganic matter. This is what we want. We want to be stones in a field.”
DeLillo Read:
The Names
White Noise
Mao II
Valparaiso
The Body Artist
Cosmopolis
Point Omega
The Silence
Next to Read: LIBRA
Don DeLillo’s underrated novel, Point Omega, is another post-modern tale that is hard to define, praise, or recommend but is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
In the middle of a desert, somewhere near California, a filmmaker is attempting to interview an ex-CIA type. The pair of them dive head-first into obscurity.
Out of the DeLillo works I’ve read so far, Omega mostly reminded me of Mao II. I genuinely like novels with a protagonist that slowly becomes detached from society, and this was no different. Once again, the author made me puzzle over a number of elements, but eventually I felt very much satisfied by the end.
Of course, expecting a plot that is easy to follow is asking a lot from DeLillo. Much of what I enjoy about his works is about mood and sifting through the hidden layers. The key is not to be daunted by the ambiguous nature of the prose.
Themes of identify, technology, social interaction between humans, and the vast detachment between governmental institutions with the masses they supposedly serve are explored.
Clearly, this type of literature drives some people to despair. Many immediately ridicule it by stating it’s pretentious or pointless, and I get that, I really do, but I don’t care, because the message, however vague, is a poignant one that resonates with my disillusionment for modern life.
The works of Don DeLillo, much like where the protagonists find themselves in the novel, is a place where I can comfortably lose myself in.
“We're a crowd, a swarm. We think in groups, travel in armies. Armies carry the gene for self-destruction. One bomb is never enough. The blur of technology, this is where the oracles plot their wars. Because now comes the introversion. Father Teilhard knew this, the omega point. A leap out of our biology. Ask yourself this question. Do we have to be human forever? Consciousness is exhausted. Back now to inorganic matter. This is what we want. We want to be stones in a field.”
DeLillo Read:
The Names
White Noise
Mao II
Valparaiso
The Body Artist
Cosmopolis
Point Omega
The Silence
Next to Read: LIBRA