The Book Depository Underworld by Don Delillo
702 ratings
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Price: £18.90
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Underworld : Paperback : Prentice Hall (a Pearson Education company) : 9780684848150 : 0684848155 : 27 Jul 1998 : A gloriously fused history of the past 50 years that offers a key to understanding American culture, Underworld moves through the nation's diverse landscapes, analyzing the mesmerizing interplay between two central characters, and (offering) us another history of ourselves, the unofficial underground moments (Michael Ondaatje). A National Book Award Finalist. The Book Depository Underworld by Don Delillo - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780684848150
MPN: 0684848155
GTIN: 9780684848150
Author: Axle
Rating: 5
Review: Around the time I started reading this book, a critic said that reading a novel can be a significant act. Having taken around four months to read this from start to finish and having read six books at the same time, I can safely say that at a physical level, this is a book that is a significant act in its reading: you will feel that you have accomplished something at the end of it, in the same way you might feel after having read 'Bonfire of the Vanities' or 'Gravity's Rainbow', two other examples of the great American novel. Therefore, it goes without saying that in its writing, this is also a significant act. The craft with which Delillo reveals the characters, with the vista of the Cold War roaring across savannahs and cities throughout the US takes you to that time and place. His sense of rhythm in speech is unmatched in American writing: it is perhaps only Amis of the English writers who can compare and I am never certain if he is serious or deliberately tabloid in his patter. The art really is in Delillo's ability to make the banal into a prism not far short of ecstasy. This is a novel about waste and rubbish, trash and garbage, which, as he says, 'will end up consuming you'. This book will have the same effect: its proclivity for consuming hours of your time, before bed, over weekends, is unmatched and unrivalled. Its subject matter and its length make it perhaps the perfect book for our ages. It is a semi-fictional (with some real characters and places) account of the world teetering on the edge of tomorrow, with atomic warfare only moments away. Given where we are now, unable to experience the world with our senses and only through screens, means that this story is perhaps the ideal lockdown book: you will not regret reading this and it may even change the way you look at our history and your present. A note of caution: I tried to read this book over ten years ago and couldn't manage it. Then, last summer I picked up 'White Noise' and worked through Delillo's work before ending up with this. I would recommend, if you are unfamiliar with his writing to try 'White Noise', 'Mao II' or 'Libra' before this as they are more 'conventional' in the sense that they tell a tale through their progressive narrative. You won't be disappointed with any of these, but I believe that Underworld stands apart as the most significant act by one of the world's greatest living writers in the English language.
Author: Adnan Soysal
Rating: 1
Review: I respect the will and patience of all those who managed to read this 825 pages of pretentious & boring crowd of words. I gave up at page 33.
