cjb

Underworld

by Don DeLillo

“I'd read White Noise in a class in the summer of '02 and had heard enough about DeLillo to revere him, so when a friend invited me to hear him read in SF (promoting Cosmopolis) I bought a copy of Underworld and had it signed. It wasn't until a year or so later that I finally read the thing, and it took me ages because I would need to stop and catch my breath after every third sentence.

[in that same class the professsor told us that DeLillo and Pynchon met regularly for lunch in NYC. I have no idea whether or not that's true, but believing it is warms my heart.]

I've since bought several copies, read it again, and gave them along to friends. For a period of time I even misplaced the signed copy I had... I knew I wouldn't have loaned it out casually, and one day I got it back in the mail from my ex-girlfriend. Unread. Another mystery I'll never understand.”