dmit that I'm not sure I get the point. There's an odd 15 pages at the beginning, and an odd 15 pages at the end, sandwiching a brief and bleak story in the middle. The story was well written, with some beautiful if stark passages, but it didn't have much of a soul. The characters' motivations were not apparent to me, and the plot, such as it was, just kind of fizzled out. There were some interesting bits of philosophy mixed in, and comments on the nature of time, but not enough to hang even a small book on. I suppose this is one of those "making a point" books that is not meant to be plot or character driven, but I'm honestly not sure what the point was that it was trying to make. Obviously, there were some points being made about the Iraq war and post 9/11 America, but they were so obliquely made as to be ineffective to me. It felt more like a point of view was starting to be made about these issues and then just fell by the wayside without ever being drawn to a conclusion. That being said, I am sure there are those out there who would make the case that I just didn't get the book, which I readily admit is possible if not likely. As always with DeLillo though, there were some great bits of writing."...I'm not talking about secrets or deceptions. I'm talking about being yourself. If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things the others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself." [p. 66]
It's hard to give this book a rating at this point, but maybe 3.5 stars out of 5. Maybe a little further thought will provide more clarity. Maybe not.
Books read in 2010: 15 [totalling 3,207 pages]
New authors: 9
Books published in 2010: 7 [including this]
Classics read: still 3
I haven't decided what to read next.
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