Americana
by Don DeLillo
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 566)
Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of rambling narrative like McCarthy
My first experience with Don DeLillo was good. I'm not certain I'd be ready for anything else of his for a while-- that's a nice way of saying one of his books might be enough. But I'm usually very adamant about finishing what I start. And it was good, just not great. I'm moving on to short stories by Graham Greene, I think--- or at least until the new Richard Russo comes out, which is very soon and I can't wait. May go try to see him at the Harvard Book Store event in a few weeks- a...more
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Don Delillo's first novel is less a novel than snippets of a long conversation. It sort of runs like a videotape that is put on fast forward ten minutes for every five minutes you're allowed to watch. This storytelling approach is appropriate since that is essentialy what the novel is.
David Bell is living the American dream. At twenty-eight, he is a highly influential television executive. He is handsome and popular. He is divorced, but he and his wife are still very close and probably bett...more
David Bell is living the American dream. At twenty-eight, he is a highly influential television executive. He is handsome and popular. He is divorced, but he and his wife are still very close and probably bett...more
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I read this, DeLillo's first book, because my husband said it was good. I'm a fan of Libra and White Noise, and an even bigger fan of Underworld, so I thought, Why not?
I couldn't stand this book. I don't remember much about it except that it reminded me of hanging out with pretentious 19-year-old boys who wax poetic about Baudrillard and Godard over cheap beers.
I have yet to meet anyone who read and liked this book after the age of 25. I'm guessing those who liked this book after the ...more
I couldn't stand this book. I don't remember much about it except that it reminded me of hanging out with pretentious 19-year-old boys who wax poetic about Baudrillard and Godard over cheap beers.
I have yet to meet anyone who read and liked this book after the age of 25. I'm guessing those who liked this book after the ...more
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Read in May, 2008
I had high hopes for DeLillo's first book, and I have to say that I'm a little let down. It isn't what it promises to be. Described as a road trip across America, the book is mostly a kind of extension of Catcher in the Rye. That is to say, it seems to be an exploration of what it would be like to see Holden after college, working in New York City and hating it.
There are moments of absolutely splendid writing. On any of these sentences, DeLillo is a master, but the book dissolves into...more
There are moments of absolutely splendid writing. On any of these sentences, DeLillo is a master, but the book dissolves into...more
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Read in August, 2006
DeLillo's first book. True to its name in countless ways, including 1) the distinctly American description of the main character's office life (David Bell, a TV executive), with many amusing exchanges with the secretaries and his boss, mainly at the first part of the book; and 2)the way David Bell describes his life as "lived in the movies," imagining it in a idyllic Hollywood way. The book changes dramatically when Bell goes on a roadtrip with his friends in a camper to middle America...more
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Just really unbelievable that he can get away with so blatant and heavy a freudian plot point. Along with the iron-fisted relationships drawn between flashback and present action. All of it. The disastrous last act, the disastrous bookend premise of the narrator's presence. And still, STILL, a book everyone should. Especially anyone who wants to write a book, because here is a masterful author's uniquely unmasterful first novel, since esteemed as a masterpiece for its sheer unmasterfulness. It's...more
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Read in November, 2005
Primer novela de Don DeLillo donde seguimos el 'viaje' de David Bell, un ejecutivo de televisión en ascenso. Ya desde sus inicios DeLillo no cejaría en su tarea de criticar y señalar la corrupción del cuerpo corporativo norteamericano. Los entrecijos de la formación de un ejecutivo en un mundo que se divide entre la gran planicie americana: desolada, y el complejo mundo urbano que exije la esacala social despiadada. No quisiera decir novela de formación sino de confrontación entre el yo d...more
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Read in January, 1990
I read this years ago, and quite liked it - though it is not really his best book. There a wonderful part in it where the writer is making a film and has written the script on the walks of the motel room he is in and gets the actor to read the script as he uses the camera to either film the actor or pan the text on the walls.
His books are filled with incredibly strong images that stay with your for years and years.
His books are filled with incredibly strong images that stay with your for years and years.
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recommends it for:
Those in search of origins
To those in search of origins, their own, or Delillo's, this is undoubtedly an interesting read. As Delillo's first novel, and most obvious attempt at the great American novel, it falls prey to many "first novel mistakes." It is clever, sharp and keenly insightful, but it is disjointed, winding and flabby.
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I believe this is DeLillo's first novel, and it's clear from the get go what he does... he picks a world and captures it's rhetoric perfectly through a handful of rather unknowable characters. In this case, it's the world of Advertising. It reads like a Mamet play set to prose. A guy could do worse.
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I'm not going to make a comment on this book because I didn't really give it my fulkl attention, rather, I dipped in and out infrequently and then about 20 pages from the end turned my fancy to another, prettier book that appeared on my bedside table. I promise to try another DeLillo soon...
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in October, 2007
DeLillo is unquestionably my favorite author. I just realized why last night: his dialogue is unbelievably unrealistic. No one would say the things he has his characters say. Maybe I'm out of touch with the NYC aristocrats but it's wildly bizzare and that's what makes it so fun to read.
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Read in July, 2008
I thought this would be a more conventional "road novel" about a guy quitting his job to drive across America. It's much better than that. Much weirder. No Underworld but a fine first novel. I kept on forgetting it was from the 70s.
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recommends it for:
DeLillo Readers
i think my big problem with this book is that you can tell it's his first, and if i had read it when i was 19, i probably would've gotten a lot more out of it. creative youths bug me, mostly because i was one.
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In turns brilliant and disgusting. It really felt like Delillo was stretching his legs to see what he could do. I'd recommend it to people who enjoy his other work, but not as a first read for this author.
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Read in December, 2007
i wanted to like this book, after loving white noise, but while it had it's funny moments, it just devolved into something that became sort of a mush. maybe it was deep, but it was too deep for me.
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Read in March, 2008
I'm so glad that this book is so good. I loved Underworld but Mao II, White Noise fell really short. This one isn't quite as good as Underworld but I'm really enjoying it, very funny and poignant
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Read in January, 2006
"Mad Men" on AMC reminds me of this book. Haven't read much of DeLillo's other books, so not sure how this one stacks up. Depiction of the late 60s/early 70s workplace is fascinating.
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recommends it for:
glad-handers, ad-handlers
This novel tears itself apart in the end. It might have been seen as daring or dangerous in its day but it doesn't hold up. Still, its first seven-eighths are sheer semi-genius.
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Read in January, 2005
Throw strange, unreadable, paranoid Nixon-era babble and flashes of typical emotion-capturing DeLill-ian brilliance in a blender for a nice tall glass of "Americana."
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