NP BookCourt don delillo is reading here tonight at 7pm for POINT OMEGA

[Carvill, John]

> I will argue with any that the prologue, Pafko at the Wall, from Underworld, ranks among the best writing of the last 25 yrs, in this country 

That's fighting talk!

Well, of course that is a bravura opening, although it maybe feels just a tad contrived - the author's delight in all the symbolism and resonances he's stirring in is right on the border of 'too clever-clever for its own good', imho. I enjoyed reading that section, but then the action shifted (a desert somewhere?) and I lost interest in the book.

I don't think DeLillo really ranks anywhere near as high as Pynchon. I haven't read all his stuff, but I do feel he's a touch overrated. I loved Libra, and very much liked White Noise. Mao II was a huge disappointment.

The way in which 'Against the Day' was overlooked will, I predict, come to be seen as the early 21st Century critics' invasion of Iraq, something people will forever shake their heads in bemusement at. 

I will argue with any that the first section alone, 'The Light Over The Ranges', is worth as much as any whole novel published in the last 20 years.