Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Yes, the great authors are different. In the case of this book, we learn that a
writer of note can produce a novella of little more than one hundred pages and
convince his publisher to release it as a $24.00 hardcover. In this economy,
that news is either reassuring or troubling, depending on your perspective.
True, measured by the word, the price tag may seem a bit exorbitant, but when
the author is Don DeLillo, the reader is advised to splurge.
Let us revisit Mr. DeLillo’s resume, for those unfamiliar
with it. He is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
in fiction, and in a fairer universe would be a strong
candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. DeLillo’s
magnum opus Underworld was selected as one of the
three best novels of the preceding 25 years by the
New York Times in a 2006 survey of writers and critics.
His 1988 novel Libra, a fictionalized account of the life
of Lee Harvey Oswald, also garnered votes in the
same poll, while DeLillo’s 1985 work White Noise may
be the pick of the litter, a wry novel about an
academic who has pioneered the new field of
“Hitler Studies,” but needs to hide the fact that
he can hardly understand German.
Point Omega captures many of the trademark strengths of this author. DeLillo
may be the finest writer of dialogue among contemporary authors, and is
especially acute at capturing interlocutors who talk at cross purposes, an effect
that can be either comic or disturbing depending on the setting. In his
thematic choices, DeLillo is the anti-Norman Rockwell, the master of Americana
stripped of the nostalgic or endearing, and laid forth, like a patient etherized on
a table, in all its banality and self-serving deceptions. Sometimes the dice are
loaded—this author often constructs characters who seem to have targets
painted on their back, begging for a deflating jibe—but DeLillo never collapses
into the preachiness and badgering that torpedoes too many novels that aim
for social relevancy.
DeLillo gradually circles into his story in Point Omega. At first, the novel appears
to be about avant-garde cinema, setting up two contrasting plots that both
deal with motion pictures. In the first section of the book, DeLillo presents
readers with an unnamed character who is obsessed with a museum screening
of a doctored version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, in which the original 109
minute film is slowed down to transpire over a period of 24 hours. This opening
gambit is followed by a longer narrative describing a different filmmaker’s
attempt to convince a former Pentagon consultant to participate in a
documentary project.
Both of these stories will lull the reader into a false sense of the unfolding
drama, which eventually emerges from actions that take place when no camera
is watching. The tone of the novel adjusts accordingly. DeLillo often situates
his stories at an intersection in which a turn one way takes the story into a dark
humor, but a slight turn in the other direction leads into the merely dark, where
the comic has been replaced by the horrific. His last novel, Falling Man, took this
latter turn, presenting DeLillo’s somber reenactment of events surrounding
9/11, some of them seen through the eyes of a suicide bomber. Point Omega
continues in this vein, taking a few feints at a comedy of manners before opting
for tragedy.
The plot seems fragmented at first, and this too is a familiar DeLillo device.
Even his 800 page novel Underworld is really a quilt comprised of juxtaposed
sections that resist integration into a linear narrative. But the fragmentation of
Point Omega is a true fake-out. The separate plot lines actually coalesce,
snapping together with the rightness of a piece of IKEA furniture. And I am
sure that I am not only reader who needed to stop and put down the book at
that moment when the linkage between the various plot lines emerges from the
mist.
The result is book that may surprise some of this author’s longtime fans. I
count myself as an admirer, but I must admit that I haven’t considered tight and
intricate plotting as one of DeLillo’s great strengths. Yet here he has pulled the
old switcheroo, and introduces us to another facet of his evolving work,
delivering a work whose conclusion will force you to reconsider most of what
has come before. So when you size up the thinness of the volume and
calculate the price paid per word—yes, despite what you may have heard to the
contrary, people do put a price tag on art—factor in the possibility that Point
Omega is one of those rare books you may feel compelled to read again.
Yes, the great authors are different. In the case of this book, we learn that a
writer of note can produce a novella of little more than one hundred pages and
convince his publisher to release it as a $24.00 hardcover. In this economy,
that news is either reassuring or troubling, depending on your perspective.
True, measured by the word, the price tag may seem a bit exorbitant, but when
the author is Don DeLillo, the reader is advised to splurge.
Let us revisit Mr. DeLillo’s resume, for those unfamiliar
with it. He is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
in fiction, and in a fairer universe would be a strong
candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. DeLillo’s
magnum opus Underworld was selected as one of the
three best novels of the preceding 25 years by the
New York Times in a 2006 survey of writers and critics.
His 1988 novel Libra, a fictionalized account of the life
of Lee Harvey Oswald, also garnered votes in the
same poll, while DeLillo’s 1985 work White Noise may
be the pick of the litter, a wry novel about an
academic who has pioneered the new field of
“Hitler Studies,” but needs to hide the fact that
he can hardly understand German.
Point Omega captures many of the trademark strengths of this author. DeLillo
may be the finest writer of dialogue among contemporary authors, and is
especially acute at capturing interlocutors who talk at cross purposes, an effect
that can be either comic or disturbing depending on the setting. In his
thematic choices, DeLillo is the anti-Norman Rockwell, the master of Americana
stripped of the nostalgic or endearing, and laid forth, like a patient etherized on
a table, in all its banality and self-serving deceptions. Sometimes the dice are
loaded—this author often constructs characters who seem to have targets
painted on their back, begging for a deflating jibe—but DeLillo never collapses
into the preachiness and badgering that torpedoes too many novels that aim
for social relevancy.
DeLillo gradually circles into his story in Point Omega. At first, the novel appears
to be about avant-garde cinema, setting up two contrasting plots that both
deal with motion pictures. In the first section of the book, DeLillo presents
readers with an unnamed character who is obsessed with a museum screening
of a doctored version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, in which the original 109
minute film is slowed down to transpire over a period of 24 hours. This opening
gambit is followed by a longer narrative describing a different filmmaker’s
attempt to convince a former Pentagon consultant to participate in a
documentary project.
Both of these stories will lull the reader into a false sense of the unfolding
drama, which eventually emerges from actions that take place when no camera
is watching. The tone of the novel adjusts accordingly. DeLillo often situates
his stories at an intersection in which a turn one way takes the story into a dark
humor, but a slight turn in the other direction leads into the merely dark, where
the comic has been replaced by the horrific. His last novel, Falling Man, took this
latter turn, presenting DeLillo’s somber reenactment of events surrounding
9/11, some of them seen through the eyes of a suicide bomber. Point Omega
continues in this vein, taking a few feints at a comedy of manners before opting
for tragedy.
The plot seems fragmented at first, and this too is a familiar DeLillo device.
Even his 800 page novel Underworld is really a quilt comprised of juxtaposed
sections that resist integration into a linear narrative. But the fragmentation of
Point Omega is a true fake-out. The separate plot lines actually coalesce,
snapping together with the rightness of a piece of IKEA furniture. And I am
sure that I am not only reader who needed to stop and put down the book at
that moment when the linkage between the various plot lines emerges from the
mist.
The result is book that may surprise some of this author’s longtime fans. I
count myself as an admirer, but I must admit that I haven’t considered tight and
intricate plotting as one of DeLillo’s great strengths. Yet here he has pulled the
old switcheroo, and introduces us to another facet of his evolving work,
delivering a work whose conclusion will force you to reconsider most of what
has come before. So when you size up the thinness of the volume and
calculate the price paid per word—yes, despite what you may have heard to the
contrary, people do put a price tag on art—factor in the possibility that Point
Omega is one of those rare books you may feel compelled to read again.
Point Omega
by Don DeLillo
by Don DeLillo
Great Books Guide
OTHER ARTICLES OF NOTE
FROM GREAT BOOKS GUIDE
The Best Works of Fiction of
the Decade 2000-2009
Exhuming Robert Musil: A
Fresh Look at The Man
Without Qualities
The Fourteen Skies of Michael
Chabon
Life After Potter
The Nobel Prize in Literature
from an Alternative Universe
Hamlet Wore Ladies
Underwear (and other literary
secrets outed)
FROM GREAT BOOKS GUIDE
The Best Works of Fiction of
the Decade 2000-2009
Exhuming Robert Musil: A
Fresh Look at The Man
Without Qualities
The Fourteen Skies of Michael
Chabon
Life After Potter
The Nobel Prize in Literature
from an Alternative Universe
Hamlet Wore Ladies
Underwear (and other literary
secrets outed)
| Contact Ted Gioia at tedgioia@hotmail.com Visit his web site at www.tedgioia.com Great Books Guide is an Amazon.com associate Disclosure: This web site and its sister sites may receive promotional copies of review items and other materials from publisher, publicists and other parties. |
Recommended Links:
Great Books Guide
Conceptual Fiction
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's personal web site
American Fiction Notes
The Big Read
Critical Mass
The Elegant Variation
Dana Gioia
The Millions
The Misread City
Paper Cuts
Joseph Peschel
Great Books Guide
Conceptual Fiction
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's personal web site
American Fiction Notes
The Big Read
Critical Mass
The Elegant Variation
Dana Gioia
The Millions
The Misread City
Paper Cuts
Joseph Peschel
| Selected Reviews (2007-2011) BY TED GIOIA Chad Harbach [click here] Chuck Palahniuk [click here] Ernest Cline [click here] Bonnie Jo Campbell [click here] China Miéville [click here] V.S. Naipaul [click here] David Foster Wallace [click here] T.C. Boyle [click here] Colm Tóibín [click here] Bruce Machart [click here] Jonathan Franzen [click here] Per Petterson [click here] David Mitchell [click here] Joseph Epstein [click here] Frederick Turner [click here] Tom Rachman [click here] Martin Amis [click here] Ian McEwan [click here] Robert Stone [click here] Don DeLillo [click here] Joshua Ferris [click here] Paul Auster [click here] Philip Roth [click here] Jonathan Lethem [click here] Richard Powers [click here] Jedediah Berry [click here] Richard Russo [click here] Thomas Pynchon [click here] Reif Larsen [click here] Arthur Phillips [click here] Colm Tóibín [click here] Jayne Anne Phillips [click here] Geoff Dyer [click here] T.C. Boyle [click here] Jonathan Littell [click here] Daniel Suarez [click here] Jim Harrison [click here] José Saramago [click here] Toni Morrison [click here] Roberto Bolaño [click here] Chuck Klosterman [click here] Paul Auster [click here] Philip Roth [click here] Julian Barnes [click here] Marilynne Robinson [click here] Tim Winton [click here] Jonathan Miles [click here] Jhumpa Lahiri [click here] Joseph O'Neill [click here] Richard Price [click here] Tobias Wolff [click here] Donald Ray Pollock [click here] Charles Bock [click here] Geraldine Brooks [click here] Alan Bennett [click here] Mario Vargas Llosa [click here] Denis Johnson [click here] Philip Roth [click here] Ann Patchett [click here] Junot Diaz [click here] Matt Ruff [click here] Ryszard Kapuściński [click here] Roberto Bolaño [click here] Jack Kerouac [click here] John Leland [click here] Ian McEwan [click here] Khaled Hosseini [click here] Don DeLillo [click here] Michael Chabon [click here] Haruki Murakami [click here] Jonathan Lethem [click here] Michael Ondaatje [click here] Steven Hall [click here] |