DeLillo

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 03/06/2006

> I also understand that Bill Gray in Mao II was inspired by a photo of 
> Salinger (and is not a fictionalised portrayal of Pynchon, as is 
> occasionally assumed.)

[...] In several interviews DeLillo mentions two photographs which in 
some way made this book happen. Here are some comments from the 1991 
William Leith article:

"One of the starting points for this novel was a picture I saw in a 
newspaper. It was a grainy photograph of a Unification Church wedding, 
1,500 people getting married in a soft-drink warehouse in Korea.

"In the summer of 1988, I looked on the front page of the New York 
Post. There was a startling picture of an elderly man -- he looked 
frightened and angry. It was J D Salinger. The last time he'd been 
photographed was in 1955. . . . For the editor to send these two men 
[the photographers] to New Hampshire was a little like ordering an 
execution. And when you look at the face of the man being photographed, 
it's not a great leap of imagination to think he's just been shot." 
[...]

http://perival.com/delillo/maoii.html

best

(Sorry, sent the previous post before Cleo slapped the puck.)