The Names

Oct 18, 2012 Ian Graye rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: de-lillo-rama, read-2011, reviews, reviews-5-stars

Designated Driver

Have you ever got the impression that, when an author started a book, they had no idea where it would go or how it would end?

That they would just slide into the front seat and let the book take over?

This is not such a book.

Instead, I got the impression that DeLillo was so firmly ensconced in the driver’s seat here that he wouldn’t have got out if a crew of firemen arrived to rescue him from his burning vehicle.

It was win or die, so he had to pull out all stops.

When he started,...more

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Dec 07, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers who want to know the world in its noisy entirety

Recommended to John by: many other writers & readers

Shelves: american-novels-that-matter

This man's got all sorts of work to celebrate. Start w/ GREAT JONES STREET, DeLillo's vision of the banality that suffocates the famous, more pertinently American rock royalty, & continue right through to FALLING MAN, his fable of 9/11 & an America in which every tower is a deck of cards. Too long, my Goodreads space has languished w/out him, & I've got to go w/ this early-80s novel, a well-night flawless performance, the initial breakthrough to his creative peak. THE NAMES astounds...more This man's got all sorts of work to celebrate. Start w/ GREAT JONES STREET, DeLillo's vision of the banality that suffocates the famous, more pertinently American rock royalty, & continue right through to FALLING MAN, his fable of 9/11 & an America in which every tower is a deck of cards. Too long, my Goodreads space has languished w/out him, & I've got to go w/ this early-80s novel, a well-night flawless performance, the initial breakthrough to his creative peak. THE NAMES astounds & scarifies even w/out the crowd scenes that tend to define DeLillo at his most breathtaking. This one's a divorce story, to begin w/, & the writer fires up hurting-love dialog of scorching rarity. There's an illicit seduction scene, on the downtown sidewalks of midnight Athens. More moving, though wildly different, is the phone conversation between the protagonist James, committed to Athens because of his cutting-edge work in "corporate risk-assessment," & his former wife, the evening she commits to divorce & to taking their preteen son to live with her in Seattle. DeLillo weeps! He pleads for love! Yet elsewhere we've got busy & cold-eyed passages, in a alacritous poetry bordered w/ concrete & ranking w/ his very best, full-throat oratorios of overwhelming humanity, of threat & its hair's-breadth escape. James becomes an homicide investigator malgré lui, drawn into making sense of a series of cult murders, & so this Italian-American's version of the return to the Old Country (most immigrant cultures have such stories, but this ethnic group especially) -- anyway, DeLillo's version avoids all sentiment as it excavates the axial lines of one family's collapse & what it has to do w/ the larger cultural moment. It swims the Greek Aegean rather than the Neapolitan Tyrhennian, & more significantly, it never fails to suss out the close allegiances between affection & murder, love & madness, transcendence & depravity. THE NAMES reminds us that, for the most honest "risk-assessment," we need to go into the wilderness & ask the howler in his cave. (less)

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Apr 15, 2008 Scott Gates rated it 4 of 5 stars

“A shaved head would do wonders for this group.”

Parts of The Names read like a tract of linguistic idealism. One of the characters, Owen Brademas, (who is obsessed with alphabets, the shape of words, and a cult that kills people based on their initials’ matching place names) posits that ancient structures were erected, tombs built, in order to have a place for the words. “The river of language is God,” he says, which is pretty close to Nietzsche’s “Without grammar, God is not possible” (or was i...more “A shaved head would do wonders for this group.”

Parts of The Names read like a tract of linguistic idealism. One of the characters, Owen Brademas, (who is obsessed with alphabets, the shape of words, and a cult that kills people based on their initials’ matching place names) posits that ancient structures were erected, tombs built, in order to have a place for the words. “The river of language is God,” he says, which is pretty close to Nietzsche’s “Without grammar, God is not possible” (or was it the other way around?).

Lurking throughout the book is the Wittgenstein-ish idea that there is no meaning behind words or events but just the speaking of the words themselves, an act itself. The same character referenced above wants to run the hadj (yes, how Western) in spite of the fact that he does not believe in God. Belief is irrelevant, it’s the act that counts etc. etc. I guess that’s pretty much standard existentialism, isn’t it.

More so than in any other Delillo novel, it doesn’t matter at all who is saying any given thing. There are a lot of different characters, and a fair amount of time is spent making clear who is who, yet each is wholly defined by the comments he/she makes over drinks. I think this was done purposely. Late in the book the narrator concludes that when people visit a sacred place, the main thing they have to offer is language. And this is for sure the most talk-ridden Delillo book.

"Americans choose strategy over principle every time and yet keep believing in their own innocence. . . . The Americans learned to live with the colonels very well. Investments flourished under the dictatorship." The usual story of the US stomping out democratic uprisings and supporting ruthless militants when it serves its interests (i.e., when the leader will do whatever the US wants).

So there’s some real prescient stuff on the way world hates the US. The narrator (to alleviate guilt?) talks of the US’s position in the world in mythic terms, with the US serving as a needed archetype for the rest of the world’s fears. The characters in The Names are risk analysts, investors, economists, actuaries, spies, operatives; aloof from the turmoil and grievances of the regions they’re involved in, they dabble in them and move on. They scout out places of political turmoil and violence to see if corporations’ investments are safe; they have interesting conversations over dinner. They hoard rugs for profit and talk about the interesting things that happened to them the last time they were in Tehran. Kind of repulsive.

But these people are offset by the borderline lunatics of the book: the narrator, James Axton, and Owen Brademas. In literature, as often in life, it’s best to support the lunatics. It’s clear Delillo does. These two concoct whole other narratives for the regions they visit, and while maintaining your usual Delilloan ironclad grip on clear thought they push their thinking to out-of-bounds places. There is the tendency to draw profound conclusions from pretty much anything phenomena throws at them. “Everything is connected.”

When Delillo’s name is on a book you can bet your ass the writing will often be astounding. Throughout, often when you don’t see it coming, the writing will reach a crazy pitch. Plus the structure of The Names is just weird. It makes you feel as if you’re not quite thinking about it the right way, and that if you did you’d see the book differently.
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Oct 10, 2012 Mariano Hortal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-contemporary, north-american-literature

Publicada en http://lecturaylocura.com/los-nombres...

Uno de los criterios más usados hoy en día (y de los que más desconfío) a la hora de recomendar un libro es ese vocablo, tan descriptivo y a la vez manido, que se incluye en frases como: “este libro te engancha desde el primer momento y ya no lo puedes dejar“; sí, el vocablo al que me refiero es “enganchar”.

No ya por las connotaciones asociadas a la adicción que pueda tener, sino porque este grado de “enganche” suele ser inversamente proporcio...more Publicada en http://lecturaylocura.com/los-nombres...

Uno de los criterios más usados hoy en día (y de los que más desconfío) a la hora de recomendar un libro es ese vocablo, tan descriptivo y a la vez manido, que se incluye en frases como: “este libro te engancha desde el primer momento y ya no lo puedes dejar“; sí, el vocablo al que me refiero es “enganchar”.

No ya por las connotaciones asociadas a la adicción que pueda tener, sino porque este grado de “enganche” suele ser inversamente proporcional al tiempo gastado en leerlo: si alguien se “engancha” a un libro suele leerlo en tres sentadas, sin dormir prácticamente y, a continuación, busca como sea otro libro de las mismas características. ¿Esto es malo? No, claro. Que un libro te dé ganas de leer es bueno. El problema es que otro tipo de lecturas no te “enganchen” y la frustración origine que abandones otros libros más retadores.

Según uno lee y lee libros se da cuenta de muchas peculiaridades. Una de estas es el ritmo de lectura. Evidentemente, unos libros se leen más rápido que otros, todos los que leemos lo notamos. Es parte de su personalidad, cada libro exige una forma de leer: velocidad, atención, … algunos te solicitan calma, reflexión, una atención total cuando estás en su lectura. Otros te piden marcha, velocidad, atención más dispersa. En el caso de Don Delillo nos encontramos con lecturas sosegadas, tranquilas, reflexivas. Él mismo lo comenta en su estupenda novela Body Art (2001):

“Se llevó a la boca una cucharada de cereales y olvidó saborearlos. En el intervalo transcurrido desde que se llevó la comida a la boca hasta el desdichado instante en que lo tragó hubo un momento en que perdió el gusto.”

Si extrapolamos está metáfora a la literatura podríamos decir que, hoy en día, falta un poco saborear los libros, centrándose la mayoría de lectores en el hecho de “tragar novelas” sin más reflexión.

Delillo escribió Los Nombres tras su experiencia vivida en Grecia, por la contraportada (“asesinatos rituales de una secta obsesionada por el lenguaje“) podríamos deducir que se trata del típico best-seller conspirativo, paranoico y cargado de acción e investigación. Pero, muy al contrario, es un simple pretexto, ya que el objetivo es estudiar el lenguaje (“Era el propio alfabeto. Les interesaban las letras, los símbolos escritos que formaban una secuencia fija“) y los límites de la cultura afectados por el uso del lenguaje.

Pasando por los diferentes ambientes que nos propone en diversas localizaciones (una isla del Egeo, el Peloponeso griego, un desierto en la India..), la persecución de la secta que origina estos asesinatos rituales desembocará en el estudio deconstructivo del lenguaje y sus implicaciones en la cultura y en la identidad de la persona; así, el escritor habla en el capítulo del desierto, ya llegando a la parte final del libro que “en el desierto todo cuenta. La palabra más simple contiene un enorme poder. Cada sonido corresponde únicamente a un signo. Ahí reside la genialidad del alfabeto. Simple, inevitable.” En una memorable y desconcertante coda, todo se desmonta, el lenguaje es fallido como expresión, como signo de identidad, es necesario reinventarlo (“Haz lo que tu lengua te diga que debes hacer. ¡Entierra el antiguo lenguaje y libera el nuevo“) para definirnos nosotros mismos.

Todo ello realizado con la calma de la que hablaba en el principio, deleitándonos con lugares paradisíacos y con el monólogo interior de los personajes, hay miedo a la muerte, y superioridad por tener ese conocimiento. Hay crítica de la sociedad que nos rodea, hay maestría para expresar todo esto.

Delillo es uno de los mejores escritores actuales, el postmodernismo en su plenitud, si estás dispuesto a dedicarle tiempo, ese tiempo que sus novelas requieren, parafraseando al escritor: a “no olvidar saborear sus novelas”, es más que probable que no te decepcione, muy al contrario, será tan estimulante que, posiblemente, no quieras parar de leerlas.

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Jan 10, 2008 Spiros rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Graham Greene and THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET

Shelves: chasingmytail, bins, staffpicks

I came back to this book for a couple of reasons; first, because I am about the lose my "Staff Favorite" pick at work (feckless customers who don't realize what a wonderful book Kurosawa's SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY truly is!) and am thinking about using this as a replacement, and secondly, because I recently read YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, which, however flawed it is as a novel, shares some of the linguistic concerns that inform DeLillo's novel.
Set in the period just before and during the 1979 r...more

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Jun 14, 2008 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-books

DeLillo is a tough author at times, he can also be fantastic. Underworld is a masterpiece and i loved that. Fortunately or unfortunately, that was the first DeLillo I read and ever since I have been trying to rediscover the brilliance of that novel. Nothing has matched it, but a lot have been interesting: white noise, libra, falling man and now The Names. I think he is such an American writer and I like that about him.

the names made me think and seems remarkable that it was written in the early...more

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Jul 26, 2012 D. rated it 5 of 5 stars

i've tried and failed several times to put into words the fullness of my admiration for this author. then:

DON DELILLO DROVE ME INSANE BY MAKING MY BRAIN EXPLODE AT REGULAR INTERVALS. THEN HE WOULD REEL ALL THE PIECES BACK IN AND WEAVE THEM TOGETHER...ONLY TO BLOW THEM UP AGAIN WITH THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!! I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE I WAS IN A FOREST, FOR ALL THE TIMES I WOULD GO BACK AND READ THAT ONE TREE, JUST THAT ONE TREE, OVER AND OVER BEFORE I WAS ABLE TO TEAR MYSELF AWAY AND MOVE ONTO THE NEXT PA...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Robert Jacoby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here is a caveat: I read poetry, novels, and short stories for both pleasure and work: to enjoy the writer's use of language and to learn how the writer did what he or she did, and to take away from the experience lessons for myself in my own work. As a writer, I give this novel 5 stars; as a reader, I give it 3 stars.

As a writer I stand in awe of DeLillo's use of language. He is constantly surprising you with his quirky and inventive use of words and phrases.

As a reader, be prepared to find n...more Here is a caveat: I read poetry, novels, and short stories for both pleasure and work: to enjoy the writer's use of language and to learn how the writer did what he or she did, and to take away from the experience lessons for myself in my own work. As a writer, I give this novel 5 stars; as a reader, I give it 3 stars.

As a writer I stand in awe of DeLillo's use of language. He is constantly surprising you with his quirky and inventive use of words and phrases.

As a reader, be prepared to find not much of a story to drive any sort of action. There is no readily apparent narrative arc. The dialogue is unreal. People don't speak like this. I think DeLillo provides hints at the struggles with story he experienced while writing this novel: "What we lacked was a subject"; "...a shouted dialogue lacking sense and purpose." Yeah, it kind of feels like that, like DeLillo started writing and just kept writing. On my first attempt at reading this novel I stopped at about page 47 (someone once told me: Give a book 50 pages; if it hasn't grabbed you by then, feel free to give it up). Well, I did give up; I put it away for about a year. But then I circled back to it. And I'm glad I did. As a writer more than a reader. Because that's what pulled me along. Not the story, not the characters, not the action. But the language. Which is of course DeLillo's intention.

But here is where my writer and reader minds collide. Even as I was enjoying the beautiful and startling use of language on the pages, I was thinking that these conversations could never take place because real people do not speak like this, nor does a person think like the main character thinks. If we are to believe that the main character--a risk analyst living in Greece, who used to be a technical writer--is really who he says he is, then he is in the wrong line of business. He should be a poet (a Poet Laureate, for that matter), or a novelist.

Oh. That's right. He already is. It's DeLillo.

This is where the book "falls apart" for me, in this page-by-page collision. But it's a beautiful collision. And if you can hang on for the ride you'll be rewarded with a new way of viewing the world, and the world of words.(less)

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Jan 12, 2011 Kristoff Tilkin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

't Blijft een raadsel waarom er van Don DeLillo slechts mondjesmaat vertalingen verschijnen: sinds het fantastische trio 'Witte ruis' - 'Libra' - 'Mao II' geldt de Don namelijk als één van de topchroniqueurs van de American Dream en zijn uitwassen, en toch is alleen zijn magnum opus 'Onderwereld' uit 1997 nog in druk. Enfin: verwacht van ons geen waterdichte samenzweringstheorie, wij melden u liever het verschijnen van 'De namen' (Manteau), een meer dan geslaagde opstap naar 'Witte ruis' uit 198...more 't Blijft een raadsel waarom er van Don DeLillo slechts mondjesmaat vertalingen verschijnen: sinds het fantastische trio 'Witte ruis' - 'Libra' - 'Mao II' geldt de Don namelijk als één van de topchroniqueurs van de American Dream en zijn uitwassen, en toch is alleen zijn magnum opus 'Onderwereld' uit 1997 nog in druk. Enfin: verwacht van ons geen waterdichte samenzweringstheorie, wij melden u liever het verschijnen van 'De namen' (Manteau), een meer dan geslaagde opstap naar 'Witte ruis' uit 1982.

Verteller James Axton werkt overdag als risicoanalist voor een schimmig bedrijf, na de werkuren drinkt en filosofeert hij over politiek met andere expats ? bankiers, industriëlen en kaderpersoneel van multinationals die heen en weer pendelen tussen Karachi, Tripoli, Caïro, Beiroet of Amman, steden die volgens een van Axtons vrienden 'terroristische babyboxen (zijn) of anti-Amerikaans of het zijn gigantische lappen economische en sociale en politieke ravage.' Toch zijn ze zich hyperbewust van hun eigen rol in het kruitvat van het Midden-Oosten: 'Al dat bankieren, die technologieën en dat oliegeld veroorzaken een onbehaaglijke stroom door de regio, een ingewikkeld stel afhankelijkheden en angsten.'

Terwijl Axtons huwelijk verkruimelt en zijn hoogbegaafde zoon van 'm vervreemdt, komen hij en archeoloog Owen Brademas in Athene een sekte op het spoor die zo nu en dan een oude of zieke bewoner van een afgelegen dorp vermoordt. Een motief lijkt te ontbreken, en dat confronteert Axton en Brademas met hun angsten, waaronder de diepgewortelde (en volgens DeLillo op en top Amerikaanse) angst om anoniem te sterven: 'Het vooruitzicht verontrustte hem dat de media niet zouden berichten over de opstand of terreurdaad waarbij hij zou omkomen.' Het duo raakt geobsedeerd door de sekte en reist de leden achterna, in de hoop hun code te kraken. Die ziekelijke neiging van mensen om patronen te ontdekken in de chaos van alledag is trouwens een rode draad in het oeuvre van DeLillo (én in 'Zwerm' van Peter Verhelst). Voor Owen is het zelfs een manier van overleven: 'Ik heb het gevoel dat ik tegen mezelf beschermd ben zolang er in de tastbare wereld een toevallig patroon valt waar te nemen.'

Flitsende actiescènes hoeft de lezer in 'De namen' niet te verwachten, de kracht van de roman zit 'm eerder in de gesprekken tussen Axton en zijn ex, zijn kennissen en minnaressen, en in de rake typeringen over de samenleving. Zo verpulvert DeLillo het idee dat de globalisering van de wereld een dorp maakt: 'Wat is de wereld toch groot. (?) Met elk feit dat we erover te weten komen, wordt hij groter. (?) Het is één en al verwikkeling. Het is één gigantische kluwen.' In dat opzicht is 'De namen' ook een roman over onbehagen - het onbehagen van de late seventies en de vroege eighties, toen de world as they knew it op losse schroeven kwam te staan, getuige de vele naamsveranderingen: Perzië werd Iran, Rhodesië werd Zimbabwe, Congo werd Zaïre. En de roman is na twintig jaar nog niks verouderd, want sinds nine eleven en de war on terror is er alweer een waslijst aan zekerheden onderuitgehaald ? om er één bij naam te noemen: wat vroeger 'vrijheidsstrijder' heette, heet tegenwoordig steevast 'terrorist'.

Mogen wij tot slot DeLillo's Nederlandse uitgever vriendelijk verzoeken om ál zijn boeken in druk te houden, zodat wij ons zendelingenwerk bij jongere vrienden en kennissen jaar in jaar uit onverstoord kunnen voortzetten? Dank!(less)

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Dec 29, 2010 Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: hardcore delillo fans

Don DeLillo gets major points for style. Seriously, he's one of the all-time greatest American prose stylists; his knack for catching the rhythms of (educated, disaffected) speech is uncanny, as is his always-apt use of the interrogative-with-no-question-mark, which I've not seen effectively used in most writing but hear in speech every day. And he always picks good themes, if you want to call them that: technology, language, consumerism, intellectualism, violence, etc.

So why is it that he so ra...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Lemunty added it

I would hesitate to call this book a thriller, though it appears, from the surface that one could. James Axton, risk analyst, expatriate American living in Greece, is fascinated with a cult that appears to be murdering people, choosing them by the intials of their names. The book is complicated, more so because the plot evolves in the background of intense character development.

I found it difficult to read, at times bordering on tedious, but nevertheless, I'm impressed because it is not easy to...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Mike Gross rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't think this was his best book. My lit theory prof (a DeLillo specialist or whatever) back in undergrad told us that this is his most brilliant work. We were supposed to read it, but our class schedule got off-course, and we were encouraged to read it on our own. 3 years later, I read it. And disliked it.

I guess I haven't read DD in a while, but what's with his voice interjecting way too much philosophical qualification into the text? Does he do that with everything? I can't remember. At l...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I can't figure out what to write about this book. This review does have a soundtrack though, it's a Leonard Cohen song, listen to it here.

With the exception of The Players, I feel like I'm through with what I think of as the 'early Delillo'. Next up is White Noise, which I feel is vastly overrated but which I'm going to give another try, and then there is Libra, a departure from what I normally think of Delillo but a pretty awesome historical novel and then his novel about a Pynchon-like author...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Andrew Forrester rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'll be the first to admit that I just didn't really get this book. I read it for school, and I went into it not knowing what it was about, what it was trying to accomplish, or what Don DeLillo's style looked like. And I understand that there's some heavy theory at work here that I just didn't appreciate, and that I'll probably eventually enjoy discussing in class.

But as a novel, I absolutely despised this book. Despised. I love books for their story, their characterization, and their beautiful...more I'll be the first to admit that I just didn't really get this book. I read it for school, and I went into it not knowing what it was about, what it was trying to accomplish, or what Don DeLillo's style looked like. And I understand that there's some heavy theory at work here that I just didn't appreciate, and that I'll probably eventually enjoy discussing in class.

But as a novel, I absolutely despised this book. Despised. I love books for their story, their characterization, and their beautiful syntax. This book had none of that. The story is wretchedly boring, and the plot was advanced horribly. I think DeLillo would be a wonderful poet, but his endless rabbit trails on meaningless details about the setting are tasking and boring, and not at all suited to the novel as a form. The characters, like the vague cult you learn nearly nothing about, have no development and little that I found redeeming or interesting. Then there's the fact that their dialogue is completely unrealistic and often hard to follow (I just kept thinking, "No one talks like this!"). I couldn't stand the protagonist (which was horrible for me because the entire book is an immersion into his endless self-obsessed examination of his neuroses), and I was completely indifferent toward his quest, if you could even call his random business trips and social dinners a quest. Of course, I suppose you could argue that language itself, not James Axton, was the main character. Great. Go for it. But tell me next time a book is carried on the shoulders of an idea and its exploits before I start reading, so I can run far, far away from it.

To top it off, I just don't enjoy DeLillo's style. I felt like he was trying to be a more thoughtful, theoretical Hemingway. It didn't work for me. Hemingway is smooth: his short sentences propel the reader quickly, exhilaratingly through his works, and leave you wanting to know what he's trying to say. DeLillo'is style is halting and difficult. His sparse wording and obscure references to insubstantial details slowed me down and irritated me more than anything else. I think he knows exactly what he means. I think he's extremely pensive and analytical, and that's awesome. But it doesn't translate onto the page for me.

I won't say this is a bad book. I'm sure a lot of people think it's incredible and groundbreaking, and it probably somehow is. Whatever. My gut reaction to nearly every page-turn was to shake the book and wish I was shaking Don DeLillo and the professor who made me read this.

I know. I sound bitter and annoyed. I am. I'm so annoyed I had to read this book. It was just too much. I can handle unrealistic dialogue in a 19th century novel. I'm fine with less than three-dimensional characters if the novel has a beautifully detailed setting or wonderfully chronicled story to supplement what's lacking. And I'll read any Henry James or Edith Wharton novel, most of which are completely devoid of interesting plots, but which are rich in characterization and beautifully express the depth of the author's understanding of the human experience.

But all these things--these insufficiencies--together in one book where too much. Too many things are sacrificed in order to articulate DeLillo's opinions and theories. Again, DeLillo would be a supremely interesting poet, and if he hasn't written essays supporting his beliefs and ideas or detailing his endless wonderings, he should. I don't know if he has, but after this experience, I can assure I won't be bothering to find out.(less)

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Jul 26, 2011 Joey Diamond rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I have this problem with books that have a mystery element to them.. I never bother thinking about what's going on or trying to solve the puzzle. I just figure, if the author wants me to know stuff they will let me know. It works ok with crappy crime fiction but I wonder if I'm missing some of the joys and intricacies of this book.

Mostly I really loved the descriptions of Greece in here, and of other places too. Gave me big time wanderlust. I love the way Delillo does dialogue, and how he writes...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Troy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I suppose like most avid DeLillo readers I divide his work into three periods - his somewhat obscure work in the 70s, his 80s/90s commercial and critical peak, and his elusive post-"Underworld" output. From what I understand "The Names" is something of a transitional work between phases 1 and 2, although it's easily the most esoteric DeLillo novel I've read (I've made it through probably 60 percent of his bibliog.), with most of the plot, to the extent it exists, advancing secondhand through ret...more

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Mar 06, 2007 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of beauty, loss, pain and barest hope.

Mao II and The Names are tours de force of elliptical language, bracingly visceral imagery and the post-art centered world where terrorism is the new means to the hearts and minds of the masses. A deep melancholy stains every page and the climaxes are at once hushed, claustrophobic and explosively open. I'm not sure if my contradictory reviews make me or Delillo more Buck Mulligan, but either way, it's all here.

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Sep 07, 2010 David Prybil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Man, it is just scary how good DeLillo is. And how smart. And prescient. Reading this book, which is set largely in Greece but deals in large part with Middle Eastern religion and politics, one would think DeLillo had written it after 9/11. Or at the very least, after radical Islam had begun having a larger effect on American culture and foreign presence. But no. He wrote this in the early 80's. It's like he had a crystal ball or some-thing. He even talk about NY skyscrapers coming down. Yikes!

T...more

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Dec 23, 2009 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

This has to be the densest DeLillo novel I've read. There's a large cast of characters, multiple plot-lines, and some serious theoretical/thematic stuff going on, all in under 350 pages. The one thing DeLillo gets criticized for the most, it seems, is that he's prone to letting style run rampant, leaving his novels empty and vapid. I've never really felt this way about any of his books, though this one seemed to come the closest. All the characters are kept at a great distance from the reader, e...more This has to be the densest DeLillo novel I've read. There's a large cast of characters, multiple plot-lines, and some serious theoretical/thematic stuff going on, all in under 350 pages. The one thing DeLillo gets criticized for the most, it seems, is that he's prone to letting style run rampant, leaving his novels empty and vapid. I've never really felt this way about any of his books, though this one seemed to come the closest. All the characters are kept at a great distance from the reader, especially (or at least most importantly) the narrator, who we never really get to know, for all his hip DeLilloesque musings, which he (or else the author) uses to distract from what he's really feeling, what his real motivations are, his thoughts, his desires. In The Names, style dominates so fully that none of the characters, I'd say, are even real people, but instead are just vehicles for DeLillo's theoretical message, and plus his stylistic, poetic prose. Which, fine. The prose is absolutely top-notch here, and the theory is totally compelling. This is definitely a novel that warrants at least two reads.

Still, there were times when I felt myself losing interest, due to the distance that DeLillo maintains between his reader and his characters. The most emotionally resonant aspect of the novel concerns the relationship between the narrator and his wife and son (and but because his wife plays only, really, a brief, developmental role in the novel's first section, it's the son who provides the novel with its real emotional gravitas). The son, like all of DeLillo's best children, is delightfully precocious, though here DeLillo keeps him somewhat vulnerable and childlike; unlike, for example, White Noise's over-the-top-but-still-amazing Heinrich. Still, the oddly named Tap is only nine, and he's writing a novel, which is . . . noteworthy? Anyhow, during the interactions between the narrator and his son, my ears perked up and my heart started beating again. I started to care on more than just a surface, aesthetic level. Tap is clearly what makes the narrator tick, emotionally speaking. Thus, I only wish these interactions would have been more frequent and less far-between.

Here's an interaction (not between Tap & his father) indicative of what I'm talking about:

"Everybody is like everybody else."
"You can't mean that."
"Not exactly. Not stated exactly so."
"We overlap. Is that what you mean?"
"I'm not sure what I mean."

It's worth noting the absence of dialogue tags; the novel rarely uses them. All of DeLillo's characters, not only within a single novel but throughout his entire body of work, sound the same, which is fine only because his dialogue is so riveting in the way it's both incredibly realistic and wonderfully, almost comically stylized. This was pushed a bit too far, though, in The Names. Here, we have two characters who could, really, be any two characters in any of DeLillo's books, but what's truly frustrating about the interaction is that one of the characters seems (finally) to want to really say something, to make a statement, and to establish a sort of identity for him/herself through this declaration. When that declaration is met with the slightest bit of resistance or skepticism (not that the skepticism is directed at the content of the statement; it's almost as if the second character is skeptical of any statement which would allow another character to establish that desired identity), the speaker immediately retreats into a neutral and safe ignorance. We're left, once again, with a character who's unable to take a stand, make a statement, become a real person. The conversation becomes another hip bit of DeLilloesque poetry, a (dare I say) vapid interaction between two detached, aloof characters. Sure it's enjoyable on an aesthetic level, but it's hard to sustain a novel on aesthetics alone.

The overall theme of the novel is language—not written language or spoken language per se, but the means by which we, as humans, communicate. The narrator travels to multiple exotic locales, ostensibly on business but not really doing anything besides walking around making observations. There's a subplot about a series of cult murders, but this never really seems to go anywhere, and in any case, it didn't really interest me (again, I would like to read this again). Everything fits together really well, thematically, and DeLillo manages to say a ton about language without directly being like, This is a book about language. And the book's final section is . . . some kind of wonderful.

I seem to be pointing out a ton of flaws in this book, which, I guess the only thing I can say in its defense is: Don DeLillo wrote it. If you're a fan, this is worth reading. It's dense, it's saying something, it's full of poetry. Read it slowly, though. Don't expect to fly through it like you would a Mao II or a Cosmopolis. There's a lot going on here, which is why I'll go back to it in good time.(less)

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Jun 23, 2012 Dave Holcomb rated it 4 of 5 stars

A complex book, with multiple stories operating at different levels -- a man dealing with a separation from his wife and son; a dying cult that murders the old and the infirm based on the initials of their names; the surreal world of international politics and risk analysis -- all taking place against the backdrops of Greece, Jordan and Turkey. Meditations on language and communication combine to form the central theme tying together these individual threads. Interesting and likable characters e...more

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Aug 18, 2010 Ricardo Lourenço rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sétimo romance de DeLillo, precedendo a publicação de Ruído Branco, que impulsionou a sua ascensão no panorama literário internacional, Os Nomes, apesar das críticas favoráveis, continua a ser um título imerecidamente menosprezado dada a sua qualidade, mas também por se desprender da crítica à sociedade americana pela qual o autor é reconhecido, para nos apresentar uma meditação política e espiritual do início da década de 80.

"When I work," he goes on, "I'm just translating the world around me i...more Sétimo romance de DeLillo, precedendo a publicação de Ruído Branco, que impulsionou a sua ascensão no panorama literário internacional, Os Nomes, apesar das críticas favoráveis, continua a ser um título imerecidamente menosprezado dada a sua qualidade, mas também por se desprender da crítica à sociedade americana pela qual o autor é reconhecido, para nos apresentar uma meditação política e espiritual do início da década de 80.

"When I work," he goes on, "I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear."

in Guardian

Superficialidade é algo que não encontrarão neste romance. Embora apresente um estilo analítico, algo que se deve ao carácter do narrador, o executivo James Axton (simultaneamente o principal protagonista), as descrições de DeLillo são detalhadas, procurando sempre atingir um significado mais profundo, revelar uma ideia que não é aparente. Esse nível de detalhe é transportado para os inteligentes diálogos, cuidadosamente construídos e muitas das vezes entrecortados pelas divagações de James.

“Começava a considerar-me um eterno turista. Havia nisto qualquer coisa de agradável. Ser turista é fugir da responsabilidade. Os erros e os defeitos não se colam a nós como em casa. Somos capazes de vaguear por continentes e línguas, suspendendo a actividade do pensamento lógico. O turismo é a marcha da imbecilidade. Contam que sejamos imbecis. Todo o mecanismo do país hospedeiro está adaptado aos viajantes que se comportam de um modo imbecil. Andamos às voltas, aturdidos, olhando de esguelha para mapas desdobrados. Não sabemos falar com as pessoas, ir a lado nenhum, quanto vale o dinheiro, que horas são, o que comer ou como o comer. Ser-se imbecil é o padrão, o nível e a norma. Podemos continuar a viver nestas condições durante semanas e meses, sem censuras nem consequências terríveis. Tal como a outros milhares, são-nos concedidas imunidades e amplas liberdades. Somos um exército de loucos, usando roupas de poliéster de cores vivas, montando camelos, tirando fotografias uns aos outros, fatigados, disentéricos, sedentos. Não temos mais nada em que pensar senão no próximo acontecimento informe.”

Os Nomes foca-se, sobretudo, na importância da linguagem para a humanidade e no distanciamento da realidade, na ausência de paixão que afecta James. Separado da sua família, e sem um rumo definido para a sua vida, James acaba por se interessar pelo mistério que envolve os assassinatos ritualistas, sendo esse o principal motor da narrativa, que quebra a rotina do analista americano impelindo-o a compreender esse seu interesse e, através do conhecimento das razões por detrás dos seus intentos, perceber-se melhor a ele próprio.

“Sabemos que havemos de morrer. Isto é, em certo sentido, a nossa virtude redentora. Nenhum animal sabe isso excepto nós. É uma das coisas que nos distingue. É a nossa tristeza particular, este conhecimento, e, por conseguinte, uma riqueza, uma santificação.”

Não deixa de ser impressionante verificar como, através da complexidade inerente às questões existenciais com que personagens se confrontam, entre as profundas reflexões políticas, sociais, religiosas e linguísticas, Don DeLillo consegue dar liberdade ao leitor no que a conclusões diz respeito, como que entreabrindo a porta que permite alcançar as respostas, enquanto diminui as distorções que afectam o nosso raciocínio, submergindo as vozes enganadoras que nos tentam desencaminhar constantemente.

“- Neste século, o escritor tem mantido uma conversa com a loucura. Podemos quase dizer que o escritor do século vinte aspira à loucura. Alguns conseguiram-no, evidentemente, e ocupam lugares especiais na sua consideração. Para um escritor, a loucura é uma destilação decisiva do eu, uma edição decisiva. É o submergir das vozes enganadoras.”
(less)

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Aug 04, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: not many

NOT GOOD! i read it out of obligation bc it's don delillo but dang, it was boring. even though it was interesting (international finance, murder cult, fascination with labels, all hot topics for moi) it was so flippin boring. sorry don.

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Jun 01, 2012 Mary rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 2012

I tried with this one, I really did. I think I dove into DeLillo with the wrong book.

The premise is intriguing. An estranged American/Canadian couple raising their son in Greece. There's mysterious murders. There's "cultured world travelling" friends who pop in and out to have wine fuelled discussions about world events and political upheaval. The protagonist is removed, detached, sad, always thinking, thinking... The descriptions of Athens and the Greek Islands are spot on, it really captures...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Mike Travers rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a maddeningly elliptic novel, where the characters barely exist and the answer to the whodunit (spoiler, but not really) appears to be "language". Yet it somehow works. Delillo's subject, as usual, is the postmodern condition, his characters are expats who inhabit a nebulous world of international banks, the plot involves a mysterious and murderous cult that exerts an odd fascination on some of the characters. Linguistic signifiers seem to take on a power of their own; the timelessness a...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Liza rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-about-greece, bookgroup

Remarkably prescient about post 9/11 world. Also, one of the best books about modern Greece and Athens, capturing the flavor of the people and the country. It tries to do too many things, and degenerates into a rather unsatisfactory mystery-thriller with a confusing narrative, but still worth it for its ruminations on language, its mysterious atmosphere and, as mentioned before, its creepy depictions of secretive operations and expat operatives working behind-the-scenes, quasi-illegally for a go...more

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May 09, 2013 Tina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Inhalt:

James Axton zieht nach Griechenland um in der Nähe seiner Frau Kathryn und seines Sohnes Tap sein zu können, die von ihm getrennt leben. Kathryn beteiligt sich dort an einem Ausgrabungsprojekt. Er arbeitet als Risikoanalytiker einer großen Versicherungsfirma. Bald kommt es auf der Insel zu einem grausamen Ritualmord. Owen Brademas, der Ausgrabungsleiter von Kathryn, vermutet, dass eine Sekte hinter den Morden steckt, die Interesse an antiken Schriften hat. James’ alter Freund Frank Volte...more Inhalt:

James Axton zieht nach Griechenland um in der Nähe seiner Frau Kathryn und seines Sohnes Tap sein zu können, die von ihm getrennt leben. Kathryn beteiligt sich dort an einem Ausgrabungsprojekt. Er arbeitet als Risikoanalytiker einer großen Versicherungsfirma. Bald kommt es auf der Insel zu einem grausamen Ritualmord. Owen Brademas, der Ausgrabungsleiter von Kathryn, vermutet, dass eine Sekte hinter den Morden steckt, die Interesse an antiken Schriften hat. James’ alter Freund Frank Volterra taucht in der Nähe auf, um einen Film über die Morde zu drehen. James und Owen begeben sich auf die Suche nach der Sekte um ihr Geheimnis zu lüften und ihre Beweggründe zu verstehen.

Meinung:

Das Buch der Banalitäten. Die ganze Geschichte scheint sich nur um Banalitäten zu drehen. Selbst die Ritualmorde und die Suche nach der Sekte scheinen Banalitäten zu sein. Einfache Ereignisse im Leben eines Mannes. Nichts besonderes, nichts erschütterndes.

Dazu kommt, dass ich die Motivation von James nicht nachvollziehen konnte. Fast das ganze Buch hindurch habe ich mich gefragt: Warum tut er das? Ich habe es nicht verstanden, ich habe keinen guten Grund für sein Handeln gefunden, so sehr ich auch darüber nachgedacht habe. Es gab keinen Grund für ihn, sich in diese Ritualmorde einzumischen, zumindest keinen Grund, für den man sein Leben in Gefahr bringen würde. Mir hat die Notwendigkeit in dem Buch gefehlt. Ob James das Geheimnis der Sekte nun aufdeckte oder nicht hätte nichts geändert. Ich habe immernoch auf eine überraschende Wendung gewartet, irgendetwas, dass die Dinge klarer macht, das mich überrascht. Doch die Stelle kam nicht. Das Buch hätte unheimlich spannend sein können, aber durch die fehlende Motivation und unbedingt Notwendigkeit der Ereignisse war es eher langweilig. Da hat einfach der Biss gefehlt.

Trotz aller Kritik war das Buch auf sprachlicher Ebene großartig. Allein für die Wortwahl hat es Spaß gemacht, es zu lesen. Man konnte wunderbar in die Gedanken- und Gefühlswelt von James eintauchen, auch wenn sie oft nicht nachvollziehbar war. Ich habe seine Monologe geliebt und sein Nachsinnen über Themen, die ihn bewegten. Was mich allerdings gestört hat, waren die langen, langen Dialoge, in denen man manchmal den Überblick verloren hat, wer überhaupt was sagt. So ausgereift waren die Stimmen der einzelnen Charaktere nicht, dass man es von der Sprache her hätte unterscheiden können. Zum Ende hin wirkten die Dialoge manchmal arg gekünstelt, mit einer Sprache, bei der ich dachte: So redet doch niemand. Don DeLillos Erzählstimme ist erkennbar, ich mag sie, aber ich habe das Gefühl, dass sie zu diesem Zeitpunkt, in dem er das Buch geschrieben hat, noch nicht ausgereift war.

Fazit:

Wer eher auf der Suche nach schöner Sprache und außergewöhnlichen Charakteren ist, für den ist das Buch das richtige. Wer allerdings hofft, hier einen actiongeladenen Thriller zu finden, wird enttäuscht. Für mich ist es ein ganz nettes Buch, nichts Besonderes, nichts Bewegendes, aber ganz entspannend für zwischendurch.(less)

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Dec 17, 2011 Ryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

OK, in some ways this was an amazing book. Definitely some of the best writing I've read in a long time (Didion excepted), and some of the descriptions of expat life in Greece really resonated for me. On the other hand....the "story" in this book was nothing but a skeleton for him to hang the amazing writing on. And I guess I'm just not literary enough for you, DeLillo....if I'm going to take the time to read a book, I like the (shallow?) satisfaction of a story, please. So, I give it three star...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having spent a lot of time in Greece, particularly the islands, the setting of this book felt like coming home to me. I thought DeLillo nailed the experience of midafternoon in the Cyclades, also midnight in Athens, the way conversation is one and the same as breathing in that part of the world. I found the cast intriguing, a revolving pack of influential expats, oil men and insurers and such, whose charge is no less than the propagation of American values abroad. Maybe I found the cult/murder m...more

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Mar 30, 2013 erik d aker rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

It's probably just a coincidence I conducted my second reading of this book when I was also reading Being and Time, but I started seeing Heidegger all over the book. That would take a lot more than a review to flesh out.

Actually, I liked the book much more on a second read: it entertains the question of meaning in the absence of god, and the way to religious faith through language. By the end, language itself becomes the only religion, the only way meaning is lost and recovered, if recovered at...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Michael Flick rated it 3 of 5 stars

This works better for me as a kind of travelogue--especially fine in conjuring up Athens--than as a novel. The narrator and the broad cast of characters are kept at a distance. That's because of the dialogue--and the novel is at least half dialogue--that is alien to the spoken word and uniform. You can't tell one character from another by they way they speak. It's like attending a lecture. Pedantic. Preachy. The only exception is the narrator's son, Tap, but he shows up in the last chapter sound...more

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title link	preview: The Names
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