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Ranking the DeLillo
Apropos of last week’s post on the worst DeLillo, I was pointed to this somewhat tongue-in-cheek ranking of DeLillo’s books.
So here’s my take on their take:
1) Kinda ballsy to put The Names in the “classics” category. White Noise and Libra are kind of easy picks for the “classics,” and I’m not sure that Libra qualifies (though it did drive George Will into a fit of pissy rage, and that deserves credit). (Also check out that new Penguin Classics White Noise package w/the Powers intro. Didn’t notice that one when it came out last year.) Lastly, I get why they made Pafko a classic, but at this point I don’t really consider it a DeLillo book.
2) Sorry, but if Underworld isn’t a classic, then nothing from DeLillo is. Players feels about right here, as does Great Jones Street , if only because DeLillo was still getting his motor running at that point. (I do love that book, though.) The positioning of Mao II here seems fair, though you could argue its classic status.
3) I get why Ratner’s Star is a “For Fans Only,” but I also don’t. A lot of people who know Jack about DeLillo could have a lot of fun with this one. Maybe Running Dog is a little blah for fans. Americana is about right here. End Zone is a lot deeper than the NY Mag people understood. Should at least be a 2. Amazons should be a 5. Game 6 should be an “Avoid,” or at best a “Watch While Drunk With Friends.”
4) Haven’t read The Body Artist or Cosmopolis or DeLillo’s theater.
Falling Man should be a 2. Point Omega sounds like a 2 as well.
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- Noise From a good feature on Don DeLillo’s White Noise at PopMatters. One of the funniest scenes occurs in the beginning of the book when Jack...
- DeLillo Goes All Night This University of Toledo newspaper coverage of an all-night student reading of White Noise leaves much to be desired, especially this part. 11:00 p.m. and...
- Against the Short Novel, Even When Don DeLillo Is the Author Lately I’ve been pushing Cesar Aira on people, which means I’m having a lot of conversations these days about how Americans don’t respect short novels....
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Recommended Books DeLillo's major work before White Noise is probably his most underrated novel. Its all right here--the politics of paranoia, terrorism, the unnamable--set in an evocative, timeless Greece.
The most bizarre Abe novel I've yet read, which is indeed saying something. About a subclass of Japanese men who go around wearing boxes from the waist up (and then use them as domiciles in the evening), the book is also an experiment in perspective shifts, a highly unstable, metafictional first-person narrative, and an exploration of voyeurism, consumerism, and aberrant sexuality.
Charting the path to three gunshots--the one that killed filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the one that disabled his Islamic extremist assassin, Mohammed Bouyeri, and the one that led to Vincent Van Gogh’s one hundred years earlier--Olsen tells three separate stories that resonate with one another on numerous levels: the logic of extremism, the role of the dissident in Dutch society, the limits of tolerance, the purpose of the artist, the feeling of the most important five minutes of your life. Read my interview with the author.
Creatively structured, well-executed epic novel of rural South Africa from 1950 - 2000. Takes on a lot and lives up to it magnificently. Highly recommended.
A book that's an interview about the book you're supposedly holding in your hands. Creative, potent, and full of life. Just what metafiction should be. Read my post on it.
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On Joining Oulipo by Accident
The Names by Don DeLillo (1982)
The Box Man by Kobo Abe (1973, English 1974)
Head in Flames by Lance Olsen (2009)
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk (2006, English 2010)
The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas (2006, English 2009)
The Names is often considered among the best amongst serious lit critics it seems. I second your thoughts on the status of Underworld and your thoughts that Ratner’s Star is highly underrated. Ratner’s Star, to me, is the best bridge between both Delillo and Pynchon and Delillo and DFW.
For my money, Libra is second only to Underworld. Haven’t read The Names though.
It seems like their reasoning behind not giving Underworld classic status was solely due to the length of the book. Apparently, DeLillo can’t win when it comes to book size, long or short, with critics.
The Names, White Noise, Libra, Mao II and Underworld is one of the great five novel runs in 20th Century American literature. I feel sorry for people who don’t like DeLillo.
I will also chip in on behalf of The Names–my personal favorite among all of DeLillo’s books. And I agree wholeheartedly with Chris’s characterization of “one of the great five novel runs in 20th Century American literature.” I probably rate Running Dog and Americana a little higher than Team New York, but otherwise that’s a terrific list.
[...] Ranking the DeLillo [...]