DeLillo

[Ghetta Life]

I haven't read White Noise, but I did try reading Americana, but put it down 
about a third into it.  It was so dead.  This review from Amazon.com seems 
accurate (except the "brilliantly written" part), but not an argument in 
favor of reading it:

In search of his roots, a successful but unhappy TV executive takes off for 
the heartland of America. "This first novel is peopled with characters 
alienated not only from one another, but from themselves. It has the smell 
of staleness and despair. It is also, with its deadly accurate observations, 
its veracious dialogue, and its consistency of view, brilliantly written," 
maintained Publisher's Weekly.

I'd also wondered whether I was giving DeLillo short shrift, but your 
comments make me think not.

Ghetta

>From: "Billy Genocide" <billygenocide at gmail.com>
>
>Can I ask what the fuck is the attraction to DeLillo? Granted, I've only 
>read White Noise. But as for that particular novel it had nothing to  offer 
>in the way of innovative technique or narrative style; the points he makes 
>about late 20th century life are trite and obvious; the most interesting 
>ideas (such as the Hitler studies) are not fleshed out as well as they 
>could be; the story seems to do a great deal of floating around without 
>much purpose. Essentially, the whole book came off as rather stale to me. 
>Am I seriously missing something? Should I read some of his other work?

_________________________________________________________________
Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
http://search.msn.com/