Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
first 50 pages comprise what is perhaps my favorite single passage in a novel. delillo's descriptive power reaches a high water mark, and the book ends satisfyingly too. but man does one wish through 700 pages that the people within would not always speak as thematic arbiters but as Real People.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Completely apart from what it's about, this book is like an 800-page mirror for all my inadequacies as as reader. I don't say that in self-pity or moping. I'm just sitting here in the wake of it, imagining how much time I could spend trying to get a handle on what all DeLillo's doing and documenting. I've obviously read all the buzz quotes in the front, and they're merited but still insufficient. I'm trying to think of what else to write that isn't just shamefully cliched. There's not a wasted word. It's a long book but I'm still floored by how much it does. I read the word "astonishing" on another dust jacket this past week (this is true) and it stuck in my craw and I was like "is that book really 'astonishing?' Will Underworld be 'astonishing?'" And I really had made up my mind that "astonishing" was too grandiose a word to be throwing around. It's not. I'm astonished. Dumbfounded, even.
The Great American Novel, a stunning evocation of America and the Cold War. Baseball, the Bomb, nuclear paranoia, Lenny Bruce, the Bronx, the changing face of aging love, the nature of infidelity, the connections we have to each other, seen and unseen, across all of our many lives - DeLillo's novel touches on it all. Many people have ideas as to what the theme here is, but the truth is that Underworld is about all themes, or at least all of the themes that ran through the American consciousness since the twin pillars of Baseball and Bomb occurred as outlined in the prologue.
Such ambition would be moot, however, without DeLillo's particular touch of prose, the sheer amount of visuals he brings to the writing. It's a kaleidoscope of description; a few reviewers have docked it marks for being too "ornamental", lamenting that every noun has an adjective tagging it for additional imagery. I'm not sure what the problem with that is, since if you want unadorned, bone-dry prose there's countless works out there that would fit the bill. The charm of DeLillo is in the way his prose flows, description layered upon description until something quite like real life itself is approached. At the same time, many have failed to make sense of his non-linear plot; the story jumps from year to year and character to character without feeling the need to lay anything out in a "A happens and then B happens" fashion. The story is there, of course, a sweeping story about people connected across geographies and time, but it is set out in a way that requires the reader to piece it back together at the end. It's telling that the central experience that underlines the first narrative of Nick that we encounter (the trip through the desert to find Klara Sax) doesn't happen in the physical book until right before the end. It's an immensely satisfying part, one that brings with it the sense of a puzzle-piece falling into the right slot in such a way that it illuminates the entire puzzle. It's an "ah-ha" moment, perhaps the best I've ever encountered.
Very possibly the best book I've ever read.
Such ambition would be moot, however, without DeLillo's particular touch of prose, the sheer amount of visuals he brings to the writing. It's a kaleidoscope of description; a few reviewers have docked it marks for being too "ornamental", lamenting that every noun has an adjective tagging it for additional imagery. I'm not sure what the problem with that is, since if you want unadorned, bone-dry prose there's countless works out there that would fit the bill. The charm of DeLillo is in the way his prose flows, description layered upon description until something quite like real life itself is approached. At the same time, many have failed to make sense of his non-linear plot; the story jumps from year to year and character to character without feeling the need to lay anything out in a "A happens and then B happens" fashion. The story is there, of course, a sweeping story about people connected across geographies and time, but it is set out in a way that requires the reader to piece it back together at the end. It's telling that the central experience that underlines the first narrative of Nick that we encounter (the trip through the desert to find Klara Sax) doesn't happen in the physical book until right before the end. It's an immensely satisfying part, one that brings with it the sense of a puzzle-piece falling into the right slot in such a way that it illuminates the entire puzzle. It's an "ah-ha" moment, perhaps the best I've ever encountered.
Very possibly the best book I've ever read.
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
FINISHED, AT LONG LAST. Don Delillo proves to me, once again, why I consider him my favourite author.