Very impressive in the end. The final chapters struggled a little under their own weight, but only because they were so amitious. Definitely worthwhile.

The poetic style is what pulled me through the story. A bit overdone at times, perhaps too convinced of how remarkable its own ‘remarkable things’ are, but the minimalist approach to character and plot largely works. Until the ending, at least, which was shockingly at odds with the quality and freshness elsewhere in the novel.

My students will read this for a set of linked courses, so I’m reading it, too.

A fellow Emersonian. Also a good read, reminding me of Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels.

Flanagan is a favorite of mine, and I’ve meant to read this for some time.

A good story, and surprising in it’s pro-fascist protaganist (which is not to say that the character’s sympathies are the author’s). The historical/political aspects are more convincing than the obligatory mystery novel romance. The writing doesn’t get in the way but it isn’t pushing any envelopes, either, and suffers to a point from constant (and unneccesary) motion from one character’s POV to another.

Reading this for a course in 4th World literature. I’ve seen the film a couple of times, but haven’t read the novel before.

Reading this for a course in 4th world literature.

Reading this for a course in 4th World literature.

I nearly stopped on the same page I did the first time I tried reading this. The descriptive prose is gorgeous, but the artificiality of dialogue and character became overwhelming after awhile. As the events of the story became more concrete, the language rendering them became more obtuse. Also, given what’s happened in the years since publication, DeLillo’s assumed connection between writers and terrorist seem awkward and a bit aggrandizing.