Delillo

[The Great Quail]

>> People have such varived responses to Delillo.

I have said this before and I'll say it again: DeLillo irritates the hell
out of me. I think he can turn a masterly sentence, his prose is
electrifying, etc. etc. But his dialogue! Oh, his characters! How I hate
them! There's not a single DeLillo character that I wouldn't want to
violently slap the second he opened his mouth. Reading "White Noise," I
*wanted* the town to be wiped out, I wanted all the characters -- including
the pretentious, unbelievable children -- to be dissolved from the page so I
didn't have to hear them whine.

And in Ratner's Star: "My mouth is saying hello." Aaaarrrrgh! How do his
characters even *stand* each other?

Richard writes,

> i'm beginning Redburn and the other earlier Melville.

Ah, Redburn. I am rather fond of that book!

> on my way to Ireland next week--any Pynchon fans in
> Dublin, Belfast?

Wow! I will actually be in Kerry next week! Maybe we can meet on Craggy
Island? 

--Quail