Novelist Don DeLillo reading from Point Omega

[mrbill793]

I finished reading this book sitting on top of a mountain, no one else around for miles.

[eganbarry]

Everyone always uses the same adjectives to describe this guy

[hammys123]

i would love to watch again the bbc omnibus episode 1991 with don delillo , titled the word the image and the gun.

can anyone help ??

[sydferret]

he is a prophet of the ineffable, transcending time and space, as Sun Ra

[FierceSwitters]

Brilliant writer, disappointing voice. Actually, the best writer I have ever read. "Somehow" reminds me of James Joyce. Not in writing, but the disappointment.

[roscoekandowskijr]

I can see what you mean about the dialogue appearing to be the least relevent function in his stories. In that sense it's deceptive. There's a passage in UNDERWORLD where two characters discuss how when people talk their lines blend together to the extent that they nearly, or actually do, board the same psychic current.

[roscoekandowskijr]

At times you can't tell who's saying what, especially given that Delillo often leaves the "he said .." "she said ..." out. Seen in this way the dialogue then takes on immense significance in that it can represent, among other things, our "connectedness" in today's world, whether we're connected through waste or technology or politics or existential crises, all of which work in Delillo. Furthermore, the dialogue shares such a relationship with the prose, bleeding in and out of one another.

[roscoekandowskijr]

I'm looking forward to reading the new one. Unfortunately, I've been somewhat disappointed with his output since THE BODY ARTIST. UNDERWORLD was in my opinion the last great one that matched his talent. It seems with age Delillo's become more of a Haikuist, transmitting his art and ideas through mind-breaths and ellipses. Although critics have slammed him for this, I think it's just another trip he's on as a novelist, and they are nostalgic for his great works of the past.

[roscoekandowskijr]

Your line about how Delillo's "sagas generally encompass characters who've become callous in their own American standstills ..." - Right on.

[basskick10]

Interesting the way Don handles dialogue between his characters, almost as if it's the least relevent function of his story. I think he needs a bigger canvas than the 117 pages in this one. His sagas generally encompass characters who've become callous in their own American standstills, and their actions that ensue when faced with the intangibles of mortality are expressed with laser-point precision. He's only gotten better with time, but he hasn't given us enough to fully immerse in this one.