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hitanne47 's review for:
Underworld
by Don DeLillo
Underworld is the type of novel I love because it centers characters above plot. I’ve seen many reviews of this book that deride it for its lack of narrative cohesion and seemingly anecdotal storytelling devices, but that is precisely why I find it so compelling. What it lacks in plot it makes up for in thematic weight, in that raw emotional stuff that makes your heart ache for reasons you can’t even place at first.
Don Delillo is painting a vivid portrait of the 20th century as seen at all its best and worst angles. In the opening scene, a baseball game seemingly unites people of all backgrounds, but racial and economic disparities abound in the stands. This book is an exercise of dichotomies in this way. Connecting all these disparate elements is Nick Shay, a protagonist who we are introduced to as a depressed, isolated shell of a man. Like the Thomson ball that acts as a prominent narrative device throughout the story, he has been chewed up and regurgitated by the sprawling mechanics of late-stage capitalism, deprived of any and all inherent meaning or character. Learning new details about his tragic life through the reverse-chronological narrative was honestly the height of this experience for me. A story with a structure like this excites and surprises you in the most unexpected ways, as throwaway lines from early on take shape as key scenes in the characters’ lives through Delillo’s wonderful prose. Seriously, this book was a delight to read, start to finish. I do think Delillo has a tendency to get a bit verbose in unnecessary places, but when he hits, he hits. I give this book 4 stars because I feel that, in context of his greater bibliography, the author retreads a lot of ground he already covered in prior works in a way that feels properly synthetic, but not transcendent. Alienation, human connection, and the roles played by lone individual in history are all themes Delillo has covered better in books such as White Noise, Libra, and Mao II. Very few of the scenes in Underworld, save for the magnificent opening and closing, had the same memorable power as those in White Noise, which I have to say
is still easily my favorite of Delillo’s works. Underworld is an incredible addition to his corpus nonetheless.
Don Delillo is painting a vivid portrait of the 20th century as seen at all its best and worst angles. In the opening scene, a baseball game seemingly unites people of all backgrounds, but racial and economic disparities abound in the stands. This book is an exercise of dichotomies in this way. Connecting all these disparate elements is Nick Shay, a protagonist who we are introduced to as a depressed, isolated shell of a man. Like the Thomson ball that acts as a prominent narrative device throughout the story, he has been chewed up and regurgitated by the sprawling mechanics of late-stage capitalism, deprived of any and all inherent meaning or character. Learning new details about his tragic life through the reverse-chronological narrative was honestly the height of this experience for me. A story with a structure like this excites and surprises you in the most unexpected ways, as throwaway lines from early on take shape as key scenes in the characters’ lives through Delillo’s wonderful prose. Seriously, this book was a delight to read, start to finish. I do think Delillo has a tendency to get a bit verbose in unnecessary places, but when he hits, he hits. I give this book 4 stars because I feel that, in context of his greater bibliography, the author retreads a lot of ground he already covered in prior works in a way that feels properly synthetic, but not transcendent. Alienation, human connection, and the roles played by lone individual in history are all themes Delillo has covered better in books such as White Noise, Libra, and Mao II. Very few of the scenes in Underworld, save for the magnificent opening and closing, had the same memorable power as those in White Noise, which I have to say
is still easily my favorite of Delillo’s works. Underworld is an incredible addition to his corpus nonetheless.