delillios last two novels

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so cosmopolis and the body artist, ultra small, ultra local, ultra minimal, meloncholy, precise books.

can we talk about them in relation to underworld please.

― anthony, Saturday, 20 November 2004 10:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Is Underworld a good book?

― Moti Bahat, Saturday, 20 November 2004 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

oh i don't really want to start. I really disliked "The Body Artist", i think the voice seems really fake, in fact nothing rings true about it. It seems like a really badly written Paul Auster story. Cosmopolis I rather liked (at least i liked it more) it was highly stylised and seemed to be delillo on autopilot to an extent but i dont mind that. I hope i can think of more to say later. There's a fair bit of Delillo hate on ILX (as i'm sure you know) and i predict some people will pop along to vent that and nothing else!

xpost - yes it's magnificent.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 20 November 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i loved the sheer beauty of the body artist, and am unsure if i like the artifices of cosmopolis--its like bret easton ellis, but less funny (i like bee)

― anthony, Saturday, 20 November 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked Underworld a lot - or parts of it, anyway. The baseball-opening was vivid and smart, I thought, and lots of little vignettes throughout made me smile in recognition. But with his last two books I feel like he's descended into self-parody. Or maybe he's always been this way, and Underworld was an exception. White Noise, to me, is one of the most over-rated books of the past couple of decades. Totally flat and unmoving and uncompelling. Jed, do you like Auster?

― David Elinsky (David Elinsky), Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought that the Arafat funeral was very Delillo. Perhaps that was a stupid thought. I've only ever read one Delillo book.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 20 November 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey david - i like early Auster - the trilogy is one of my favourite books, Moon Palace, The Music of chance, the Invention of Solitude are all pretty good too. His weaker stuff is lazy rather than all out bad, i think. Having said that i thought "The book of Illusions" was something of a return to form (even if he was just going over old ground to an extent).

White Noise is a puzzling book, the dialogue and ideas are great but you are right it's pretty overrated. Mao II is the one i like most after Underworld. I recently read a story Delillo wrote about Gerhard Richter's Baader Meinhof paintings which was just spectacularly bad (and had the same tone as The Body Artist to an extent).

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 20 November 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

PJ, the one Auster book you read wasn't Mao II was it? if so i can imagine why you said that about Arafat.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 20 November 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"to an extent" ha!

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 20 November 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't remember the title, but it featured Hillsborough. I wouldn't mind reading it again, sop if anyone knows what it was...

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 21 November 2004 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah Mao II

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 21 November 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Underworld, absolutely; the baseball opening might be my favourite piece of fiction ever written. I put the book aside for some time after that opening, scared that the rest wouldn't measure up. Of course it didn't, but it was all good nonetheless. I'm eager to give it a second read in several years to see if it stands up once the dazzle of the language wears off.

I think The Names is the DeLillo I'd rank next to it. There's a tension and paranoia to it that I haven't found in the others.

Haven't read Body Artist or Cosmopolis yet, and have actually been avoiding them due to the truly horiffic press they've had. Is it just backlash hype?

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 22 November 2004 07:15 (twenty-one years ago)

is this baseball opening available anywhere on the internet? i've gotta read it but i'm pretty freakin sure i won't want to bother w/ the rest of the book.

― John (jdahlem), Monday, 22 November 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The baseball opener was great but no greater than the rest of the book imo. Cocksucker Blues (the section mostly revolving round Klara Sax in the early 70's) is at least as good.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 22 November 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"I think The Names is the DeLillo I'd rank next to it."

Yes! My favorites:

1. Underworld
2. The Names
3. Mao II

― Cherish, Monday, 22 November 2004 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Delillo's first chapter of Underworld, one of my favorite pieces of fiction as well, was sold as a novella.

Pafko At The Wall (Novella). Harper's Oct. 1992: 35-70. Repr. Scribner, 2001. Compare Underworld, 11-60.

― Kirk Glover, Tuesday, 23 November 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

awsssommmme, thanks

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I need to re-read Mao II soon.

― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 05:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I nearly went to the library to look for it yesterday, but I didn't.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Best:

1. White Noise
2. Ratner's Star
3. Mao II

Worst: The Body Artist. And I didn't think Underworld was all that, either.

― Mog, Tuesday, 23 November 2004 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah "Ratner's Star" is a puzzling thing - the first half of it is good.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I have got Cosmopolis out of the library. Who knows, I might even read it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I just saw Videodrome! The scene in the greek restaurant, where Max is pressuring his contact for information about Videodrome and she responds that 'it is dangerous, because it has something you don't have.. a philosophy', etc. made me think instantly of The Names. Just that scene, mind, but the tension, his curiosity, her horror, the references to planned murders, the philosophy... it was right from The Names.

― derrick (derrick), Friday, 26 November 2004 09:02 (twenty-one years ago)

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