Don Delillo Forum

Don Delillo

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The Body Artist was good.

>>By Gazza (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 12:58)

The Body Artist reminded me of late Beckett; you have to read three or four times to get the most out of it. Unfortunately, I don't intend to read it more than once. Don Delillo's flaws as a writer (dry, robotic, over polished prose) can be forgiven by the fact that he has a great and serious sense of humour, which he seems to have lost around the mid-eighties. I get the feeling that as Donny boy gravitates closer to the grave, he laughs less well. I hope Cosmopolis has a few jokes.

>>By Jody Egg (Monday, 31 Mar 2003 23:54)

The Body Artist not funny? It is a comic masterpiece. Qua Qua Qua ...

>>By Samuel Beckett (Monday, 31 Mar 2003 23:56)

There is some serious tropery going down here.

>>By M Amis (Monday, 31 Mar 2003 23:57)

I've never read a book like this. Not that it was bad, it was refreshing and interesting. Yet it did not grab me much, and I could not claim it to be one of my favorite books. I would recommend it if someone is looking for a change of readings and something modern.

>>By Melanie my (Thursday, 10 Apr 2003 21:30)

Would the eejit impersonating Sam Beckett do us all a favour and bugger off.

>>By Angry Loner (Wednesday, 23 Apr 2003 19:40)

Too damn long, dry, confusing and I could go on and on. I think my professor was confused by this book. I will never recommend it to anyone.

>>By kate (Tuesday, 8 Jul 2003 21:45)

I think he's the king-daddy of Contemporary American Fiction, and so does this guy, in his review on the upcoming Chuck Palahniuk novel, *Diary*: www.eclectica.org/v7n3/mcgowin_palahniuk.html

It's an excellent read about DeLillian fiction.

>>By Litpage (Sunday, 3 Aug 2003 09:23)

Cosmopolis turned out to be a great read! Warmly recommended.

Don DeLillo is one of the few contemporaries to challenge me intellectually. Not with Finnegan's Wakishly convoluted obscureness but in an accessible way. I find many of his novels very touching, on a personal level (almost as with Auster or Banks).

>>By Underworld (Saturday, 9 Aug 2003 18:16)

Haven't read Body Artist. Libra was fine, but now reading "White Noise" and it's awesome, truely awesome. DeLillo deserves praise as a cultural critic and wit for "the most photographed barn in America" alone, never mind the Dept of Hitler studies.

Brilliant, trenchant, witty, and a wonderful lampoon! Other than that, he's OK.

>>By greenfyre (Monday, 3 Nov 2003 06:01)

white noise. Yes, their lives are mundane, yes, they live in a consumerist society, yes, Jack's afraid of death. So what? He's (don delillo is) a clever observer of human behaviour and society, i'll admit. But how do i write an assignment on this book, when really, all I got out of it was that there is no purpose in life? I have limited experience in modern literature, so maybe i am just parading my ignorance. But honestly, give me fiction with a plot and characters with purposes.

>>By larikin (Tuesday, 23 Mar 2004 10:42)

larikin

Ø give me fiction with a plot and characters with purposes.

That would be fantasy, not fiction 8-)

Ø all I got out of it was that there is no purpose in life?

Well, that is the central question of philosophy, religion and many other human endeavours, so it’s hardly an idle question. Lot’s to write about - did DeLillo merely comment, or did he suggest why? IS this an answer to Camus’ L’etranger? Is it a credible one? Why is there no purpose? Who is responsible? Jack? DeLillo? You?

>>By greenfyre (Wednesday, 24 Mar 2004 05:12)

Underworld is a masterpiece. I agree that it is long and difficult, and that are a few points that lost me along the way, but the prose in that book is brilliant. The scope of his vision, the way he evokes the lives of his characters, the baseball threading the narratives together: superb.
I have also heard it described as a worthy attempt at that mythical holy grail, 'The Great American Novel'. Well, not living in America and not ever having been there, I found it to be a fantastic attempt to define what it meant to be American in post-war USA. Probably the best I've read.
And the baseball game! What a way to start a novel. The way he evokes the sounds, smells, sights... The banter between Hoover and the celebrities.... Fantastic. Well, I could go on...
I found it to be one of those books that you get swept up in, finally getting to the end feeling you have been offered a fresh look a life. Rarely have I read such a marvellous work.
I would recommend it to anyone with a passion for reading.

tx

>>By dirtyteena (Wednesday, 16 Jun 2004 12:53)

If Don DeLillo could improve the realism of the dialogue in his books his books would be almost flawless. As his dialogue stands now, it is a glaring flaw in otherwise beautiful works. His concepts are rich, his observations astute and his passion obvious, but every character shares a common, robotical voice.

Perhaps DeLillo intends his dialogue to come off as such, if anyone has a theory on WHY he would purposely do so I would be interested to hear it.

>>By granther (Thursday, 17 Jun 2004 20:33)

i just bought The Underworld, what i know is that DeLillo received The Jerusalem award for this book, in the league of V.S.Naipaul (one of my favorites), and i expect to enjoy the book, albeit its length.

>>By jojocarlom (Friday, 3 Sep 2004 08:53)

DeLillo has to be (like Joyce) taken as a career - a life. It is difficult, granted, to pick up The Body Artist or Cosmopolis and run from there. My advice would be to start where DeLillo did with Americana - make stops at Great Jones Street, Players, White Noise, and Mao II before finally resting at Underworld. Take your time with Underworld - you see DeLillo is as much a product of Ameica (and for that matter Americana) as Faulkner, Fitzegerald, Hemmingway, and even Bellow or Updike. To taht end he is to America as Joyce is Ireland, Soyinka is Africa, or Amis is England (Kingsley more so than Martin). Also consider it was four years between the publication of Underworld and The Body Artist, a novella DeLillo admits was written in a remarkably short time - for him. So when the evolution of DeLillo is viewed in its totality The Body Artist, and maybe more so Cosmopolis, began to take there natural place in his progression.

>>By SeaMac (Thursday, 2 Mar 2006 17:50)

Underworld may be a long book to read but you don't even feel time passing by.

>>By hustvedt (Saturday, 15 Nov 2008 00:44)

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