Not P, but DeLillo

[Daniel Mattingly]

Hello all,

Quick update in case you haven't seen. There is a bumper extended review of
the two Library of America volumes of DeLillo's novels of the 80s and Mao
II/Underworld in Issue #46 of *n+1* magazine. (Which is also currently not
behind a paywall on their website): *Speaking in Tongues | Issue 46 | n+1 |
Frank Guan (nplusonemag.com)*
<https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-46/reviews/speaking-in-tongues/?utm_source=MASTER+LIST+01%2F06%2F2020&utm_campaign=529472624b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_26_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b822eb7b82-529472624b-399041789&mc_cid=529472624b&mc_eid=242fce2692>

"Do you have to believe with DeLillo to see where he’s headed? Perhaps it’s
some sort of—peculiarly encoded, no doubt—childhood faith resurfacing in
old age. Perhaps it’s what a serious writer in a world that’s not is driven
to to justify his task. Perhaps it’s just the truth. In any case, his
statement, like his novels, exemplifies the “theological warmth” Osip
Mandelstam predicted would be necessary to “humanize the twentieth
century,” and maybe the 21st too. However they believe or fail to, writers
are the bridges binding one world to the next. The dream of total literacy
begins and ends with them. It doesn’t matter when it is: Should you be
asked* How
many languages do you speak?* among the tongues Religious, Secular,
Structural, Libertarian, Cool, Uncool, Good, and Evil, then the answer
should be *Yes*."


Best wishes,

Dan M.