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Cosmopolis

by Don DeLillo, Silvia Pareschi (Translator)

3.16 of 5 stars 3.16 · rating details · 6,600 ratings · 788 reviews

Un giovanissimo miliardario vive in un attico su tre piani, colleziona quadri e squali, ha una moglie di prestigio e patrimonio adeguati. Una splendida mattina, spinto da una strana inquietudine, sale in limousine e dice all'autista di portarlo dall'altra parte di Manhattan, nel West Side per "tagliarsi i capelli". Inizia così un viaggio che è una metafora, un attraversame...more

Paperback, ET - Scrittori #1382, 180 pages

Published January 1st 2006 by Einaudi (first published 2003)

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Aug 01, 2012 Ian Graye rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: de-lillo-rama

Pre-Film Review

I re-read this novel, before seeing David Cronenberg’s film (see Post 21).

SPOILERS

This review reveals what I think about the fate of the protagonist at the end of the novel.

My views are based on my interpretation of material that starts at page 55 of the 209 page novel.

If this material or my interpretation is incorrect, then the novel leaves you hanging at the end.

As my views on the novel as a whole depend on an interpretation of the protagonist’s fate, please don’t read my review...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Jacob J. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

The Problem of Language:
“It was a matter of silences, not words.”

There are those who indict DeLillo on charges of criminal literary laziness, but I would submit that actually, what he possesses is an immense understanding of the limitations inherent in language as a mode of expression, and while perhaps superficially a little ironic, I would also submit that it is a crucial thing on which to have a grasp, as a practitioner of the written word. As evidenced by the overall pithiness, refusal to go...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Eileen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, fiction, read-2011

It's a weird and complicated novel. Absolutely not something I would normally read. It reminds me of the literary books I had to read for my High school graduation exams. So why torture myself and read it?
Well, in May 2011 David Cronenberg will start filming the movie based on this novel that will be released somewhere in 2012. The very talented Robert Pattinson (who I adore) will play the role of Eric Packer, a newly wed financial wizard and billionaire, who drives through town (New York) in h...more It's a weird and complicated novel. Absolutely not something I would normally read. It reminds me of the literary books I had to read for my High school graduation exams. So why torture myself and read it?
Well, in May 2011 David Cronenberg will start filming the movie based on this novel that will be released somewhere in 2012. The very talented Robert Pattinson (who I adore) will play the role of Eric Packer, a newly wed financial wizard and billionaire, who drives through town (New York) in his limo to get a haircut.
I think the part of Eric, who is pretty (excuse me for the language) f*cked up, will be very challenging for Rob. There are some scenes I'm really looking forward to see on the big screen and some saucy lines I'm really looking forward to hear coming from Rob's mouth.

Eric is like this multi-billionaire genius prince who lives isolated in his ivory tower and owns a white horse (limo). He seems to have everything, but yet he has nothing. He's bored, there is no challenge, no satisfaction, he's totally disconnected from the outside world (no friends, doesn't look people in the face/eyes, doesn't know/recognize his own wife), he has a medical condition that frightens him and he doesn't know what to do anymore. He wants to break free, to live, before he dies. He's ready to take the plunge which is pretty courageous for a control-freak like Eric and he wants to do it perfect.
During his limo ride through New York, he tries to connect to the world and 'his' women, he removes all obstacles, gets rid of everything until he's stripped and is ready to face... the end.

I would be lying if I say that I understand everything that's written in this book, because I don't. It's very poetic, the story has many layers, is confusing, crazy, weird and absolutely no easy read. I always take things too literally and that's why I have problems reading books like this one, but I'm still talking with others about this book and every day I discover new things. I didn't expect it, but I think it's a really interesting story and different from everything else I have ever read. My experience is that the more times you read it the more interesting it becomes.
I admit if it wasn't for Rob, I would have never read it, but I'm glad I did. I think you have to see this book (and the movie) as a piece of art, you think about it, you talk about it, you admire it (or not) and never fully understand what's it all about and that's totally fine.

For the people that are interested in the movie and need help understanding the book should pay a visit to:
http://cosmopolisfilm.com/(less)

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Jun 04, 2012 the review man rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, postmodern

SORTA-BUT-NOT-REALLY-SPOILERS AHEAD

Cosompolis was my first DeLillo. It was very nearly my last. (I'm reading White Noise now, but I almost didn't.) Like many others, I read this to ready myself for the Cronenberg film, although now I'm not so sure I'll enjoy that either.

I don't really see why this novel was written. DeLillo's satirical look at technology and capitalism is hardly new (wasn't Gaddis doing the same thing—but better—in JR a full thirty years earlier?), and Eric Packer is a bit of a...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Nathan "N.R." Gaddis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ladies and Gentlemen and you multitude of the Landless:

This review would be more properly tagged/shelved "filmed" by myself, but seeing as how I did also read this book and maybe I'll add a second edition for a second review when I bother to reread the book. But...

I finally did see the Cronenberg attempt on DeLillo last night; much delayed, I don't get out to houses of movies often and netfilx recently allowed it to stream, pre-paid, into my clearly not limousine-shaped abode. And, quite true, I...more

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Jul 10, 2008 Schuyler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is book number eight on my journey to read everything written by Don DeLillo. I have not yet read his more famous works, Libra and White Noise, though I'm kind of saving them because in a way, I know it's probably going to be 'down hill' from there. That is to say, Underworld, Libra, and White Noise are probably his best work. So I'm jumping around them. Well, I did read Underworld, but I will probably end up re-reading that one.

Everyone seems to either hate Cosmopolis or just appreciate i...more This is book number eight on my journey to read everything written by Don DeLillo. I have not yet read his more famous works, Libra and White Noise, though I'm kind of saving them because in a way, I know it's probably going to be 'down hill' from there. That is to say, Underworld, Libra, and White Noise are probably his best work. So I'm jumping around them. Well, I did read Underworld, but I will probably end up re-reading that one.

Everyone seems to either hate Cosmopolis or just appreciate it for its stylistic prose but nothing else. And that seems to be how most people feel about DeLillo. What first drew me to DeLillo was his ability to write a sentence, to say things about the world that I had never dreamed of even thinking about, and then say them in a way that was simple, beautiful, ethereal, and complex. He is a man obsessed with words on a page: how they look, how they sound, the musicality of language. I often feel as if I am reading poetry. His later works, such as The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, and most recently, Falling Man, are becoming more and more abstract. I don't know if it's backlash from Underworld, which was massive and exhausting but in a good way, and now he feels the need to pare his work down to the bare essentials, to compress and compact his novels until he's just writing in between blank spaces. His last three novels combined don't add up to Underworld, page wise.

So I gave Cosmopolis four stars. I read it in about two days. I found it oddly compelling. The language is stunning. Just really amazing stuff. And I love the events and situations he puts his characters in. I'm not saying I understood/understand what he's doing all the time, in this post-Underworld space he has made for himself, but I enjoy it all the same, and I find him inspirational, both in how I live in this world, and how I choose to place myself more clearly into this world through words on a page. I will leave you with an excerpt from the end of the book...

"The things that made him could hardly be identified much less converted into data, the things that lived and milled in his body, everywhere, random, riotous, billions of trillions, in the neurons and peptides, the throbbing temple vein, in the veer of his libidinous intellect. So much come and gone, this is who he was, the lost taste of milk from his mother's breast, the stuff he sneezes when he sneezes, this is him, and how a person becomes the reflection he sees in a dusty window when he walks by. He'd come to know himself, untranslatably, through his pain. He felt so tired now. His hard-gotten grip on the world, material things, great things, his memories true and false, the vague malaise of winter twilights, untransferable, the pale nights when his identity flattens for lack of sleep, the small wart he feels on his thigh every time he showers, all him, and how the soap he uses, the smell and feel of the concave bar make him who he is because he names the fragrance, amandine, and the hang of his cock, untransferable, and his strangely achy knee, the click in his knee when he bends it, all him, and so much else that's not convertible to some high sublime, the technology of mind-without-end." (less)

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Apr 11, 2008 Pamela W rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Pamela by: Rosenberg, the bastard

Listened to this on audio during the commute and found the reader's voice really grating. Main character? Creepy and hateful, but not in a provocative way. More annoying. I don't generally enjoy reading (or listening) to lengthy soliloquies that are just excuses for phrases/random analogies or waxing on life's headier ponderances. Sounded forced, not ---ophical (insert prefix of choice). I wanted to perpetrate violence by the end of this story time, and I don't mean riotous/life-affirming violen...more

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May 12, 2009 R. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Althought set in April of 2000, the novel Cosmopolis (cosmic...city: the story has a very spaceship glow to it; the gadgetry the narrator describes in Ellisian detail...the rocketship limo, the android guards with names like...like Torval...the voice-activated weaponry) seems more a prophecy of here and now (or, yes, even six months in the future) than a satire of pre-9/11 excesses that, well, kind of got us into the whole 9/11 fix.

Eric Packer speaks in enigmaticisms - beautiful enigmaticisms -...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Marguerite Kaye rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not completely sure what existential angst is, but I am pretty certain this book gave me it. And nightmares. And it made me laugh out loud in places too, and some of the language stopped me in my tracks - mostly in a good way.

This was horribly compelling, utterly terrifying and unfortunately rang an awful lot of bells. In many ways it was picaresque a sort of modern-day Tom Jones journey through Manhatten, or maybe more like Alice Through the Looking Glass (meets Bonfire of the Vanities). W...more

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May 31, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Strangely this novel has received many negative reviews. Most of them compare this book against other Delillo works and feel it falls below his usual standard of excellence in prose. Having only read one, at this point, my view is very different.
The novel is based on a day in the life of its main character, Eric Packer, a 28 year old brilliant Wall Street currency trader who has made billions of dollars anticipating the market trends of worldwide currency. Not unlike Joyce's, "Ulysses" and Woo...more Strangely this novel has received many negative reviews. Most of them compare this book against other Delillo works and feel it falls below his usual standard of excellence in prose. Having only read one, at this point, my view is very different.
The novel is based on a day in the life of its main character, Eric Packer, a 28 year old brilliant Wall Street currency trader who has made billions of dollars anticipating the market trends of worldwide currency. Not unlike Joyce's, "Ulysses" and Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" Delillo opens the story with Packer's decision that "we" need to get a haircut. And where he chooses to have that haircut is across town, on a busy day in NYC, complicated by a US presidential visit to the UN and the security that results in ultimate traffic gridlock. The time is April, in the year 2000, before the internet stock market bubble burst. It is within the shelter of Packer's uber-equipped limo that we are introduced to his life and his world.
Packer is brilliant, obsessive to the most minute detail flashed on the several plasma screens within his limo, but has become disconnected from his humanity. Think Alvin Toffler and "Future Shock" 1970. Using mathematical formulas of probability and scientific physical theories of natural repetition, often interpreted in economics as a market predictor, he has become a financial wunderkind, revered and hated simultaneously, all over the world. His power is enormous. There are those that worship him, and those that hate him, both beyond reason. His trade orders can shut down economies, countries and banks and he knows it. The making of money for him is abstract and unconnected with jobs and individual needs for survival. He could care less. To him, it is a game against himself. Nothing more. And when he wins, there is no pleasure, no sense of satisfaction. It is 24/7, 365 days a year. The markets never sleep.
Unable to interact socially and emotionally, Packer becomes hyperfocused on his health and mortality. His limo has EKG monitors and examining tables. And, very bizarrely, he has obsessed over an incidental observation made by a physician that he has an "asymmetrical prostate". This observation results in intolerable anxiety for Packer, to such a degree that he pays for daily visits by doctors for prostate and heart exams. An EKG is not a big deal but daily prostate exams? Unpleasant at the very least and his need for it is telling.
On this particular day the Japanese yen's value continues to rise. Packer is betting against it, and despite the strong recommendations of his advisors, he stays on course. There are interactions, observations and events that occur over the period of his morning stuck in traffic, that threaten his well-being, both literally and figuratively. His security people tell him that there is a "credible threat" to his safety. Other executives in finance have been assassinated, but he dismisses their recommendations and continues on course.
As the traffic inches forward he begins to thaw, his confidence wanes, and he ultimately realizes that he has misjudged the market and has brought about his own downfall. Somehow this pleases him and he ensures it by hacking into his new wife's online account and losing her several million dollar inheritance as well. He has no shame in bringing everything down upon him. Banks, corporations, world economies. This is Part 1.
The second part of the book takes place in the afternoon, when his journey cross town is interrupted again by the funeral of a Sufi rapper musician he admires. He becomes emotionally overwhelmed by the display of grief and respect shown to this man by those who care for him. He finds his limo within a massive anti-capitalist, anti-tech protest, bordering on a riot. His limo is pelted with rocks and in every window he sees raging individuals.
Experiencing body sobs he starts noticing storefronts and the minutiae of everyman's daily life and then reflects on the barber shop he is attempting to reach. It is where his late father took him as a little boy. He knows he has destroyed his life, and that of countless others, but there is no going back. Nihilistic, he expects to die and finds this freeing. In the course of the afternoon he kills his security guard while examining his weapon, his intentionality is unclear, but there is no remorse. And he finally meets the credible threat.
This is extraordinarily well-written and timely. This was published in 2003, well before the 2009 US financial meltdown. Prophetic but deep. Had to read it three times before I could put it all together.
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Jul 13, 2007 Dave-O rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dellilo's New York limo ride flows well enough through the first half of the book. The premise allows itself to open an array of bizzare situations: a billionaire twenty-something want to ride in his suped-up stretch limo to get a haircut. On the way he has encounters with lovers, ex-lovers, and advisors in matters of technology, finance, security, and theory. Dellilo's prose is highly restrained with limited, but rich descriptions of neighborhoods that unfold through the eyes of billionaire Eri...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Caleb Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Click the image below to watch the quick Wordless Video Book Review

Only my second DeLillo book (Underworld being the other), and I can say, I officially a fan of Don DeLillo. Sure, at times all of his characters are perhaps too quick-witted, and he can go on for pages with not much happening (which I actually really like, but many many not), but the language and cultural commentary is so beautifully done that it's hard to find fault with this book.

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Jul 06, 2012 míol mór rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished, on, jun, 8, 2012, library, loan, anglo-america, new, york, postmodernism

In una mattina d��aprile del 2000, David Packer, ventottenne multimiliardario mago della finanza, si alza dopo una notte insonne. Osserva il giorno sorgere sopra Manhattan, poi attraversa le stanze del suo attico a tre piani (per il quale ha pagato, come apprenderemo, $ 104 mln) e convoca la sua limousine. Nel corso della giornata far�� una puntata sullo yen di tali dimensioni da rischiare di perdere la sua intera fortuna. Convinto inoltre di aver bisogno di un taglio di capelli, si imbarcher��...more

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Jul 06, 2012 míol mór rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished, on, sep, 7, 2011, anglo-america, postmodernism, new, york, library, loan

In an April day of the year 2000, 28-year-old multibillionaire finance whiz Eric Packer gets up from a sleepless night. He watches the day dawn over Manhattan, then crosses the rooms of his triplex (which he paid, as we will learn, $ 104 mln) and summons his stretch limo. On this day, against all odds, he is making a humongous bet on the yen, in an operation of such dimensions that even his entire wealth may not suffice to cover it. He is also under the impression that he needs a haircut, and em...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Pratinav Anil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don DeLillo happens to one of my all-time favorite writers. In fact the title of this blog comes from an epithet to him: the New York Times hailed him as 'the chief shaman of the paranoid school of American fiction.' So here the shaman makes a 21st century update to his paranoid oeuvre. Stock markets, speculations, quants, anti-capitalist riots and an overarching theme of apocalypse permeates every page of this classic.

Recently at the MAMI festival, I got to see a film adaptation of novel by Dav...more Don DeLillo happens to one of my all-time favorite writers. In fact the title of this blog comes from an epithet to him: the New York Times hailed him as 'the chief shaman of the paranoid school of American fiction.' So here the shaman makes a 21st century update to his paranoid oeuvre. Stock markets, speculations, quants, anti-capitalist riots and an overarching theme of apocalypse permeates every page of this classic.

Recently at the MAMI festival, I got to see a film adaptation of novel by David Cronenberg, better known for his gothic creations. And yes, DeLillo has found the very filmmaker that can translate his esoteric ideas into film without losing their zany appeal. Very stylistically shot, we follow Eric Packer (played by non-actor Robert Pattinson) in his limo through the streets of futuristic, apocalyptic New York. Somehow the non-acting of the Bresson-like characters seem to be really apt for voicing DeLillo's drab opinions.

There's something moving about the fact that all these old dinosaurs of the postmodern school are coming back with revengefully amazing works in this century. All the '30s born septuagenarians came back with a bang in the 2000s. Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day (2006), Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men (2005), Philip Roth's The Human Stain (2000) and yes, DeLillo's Cosmopolis (2003). Far from being washed-up, these guys happen to be reaching new career peaks these days.

DeLillo is at the top of his game with an amazing set of epigrams and one-liners. Just a year before this book, B.R. Myers wrote a book critiquing DeLillo for his 'cult of the sentence' and lambasting him for his presentation of America in dull, boring colors and his perpetual 'Life in Consumerland.' But hey, Myers, check this book out. Our Don really has virtually no 'shopping lists' or 'consumerland' adventures - here is a postmodern take on Homer's Ulysses (set in one day), and its a hundred times more interesting than the old Greek's tale.

Strangely enough, this book reminds me more of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) more than anything else. The central characters, both self-destructive, trying to find meanings in their over-saturated lives - and also the final sequence of the senseless violence. However while De Niro finds redemption in Scorsese's end; DeLillo's noirish, dark novel just ends on a plane of infinite hopelessness and death.

DeLillo has the remarkable ability to mix the tradition of literary and ornate writings with the Hunter Thompson, Arthur Miller inspired fantastical and irreverent observations and perversions. And this is what makes DeLillo realistic and complete. His sense of irony is really amazing. One of the disillusioned characters quips, 'Life is too contemporary.' And a while later he remarks to his girlfriend 'I'm a world citizen with a New York pair of balls.' He is losing millions of dollars every minute betting against the rise of the yen when its crashing at a rapid pace, but he relishes this self-destructive mood. Some kind of Thanatos, I presume. His girlfriend is somewhat turned on by this fact, and simply says, 'Talent is more erotic when it's wasted.'

It is dialogues like these that make DeLillo such an amazing read. His characters are such stoics, bursting with witticism and satirical social commentary. Their reactions of everyday objects and everyday life are so quirky and unique. You sometimes wish we had real people on this planet that existed like that. Myers says DeLillo's characters talk as if they were from another planet. So what? Its a planet I wouldn't mind living in.
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Mar 24, 2013 RandomAnthony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My DeLillo experience is scattershot. I read Libra a long, cold spring weekend in the late nineties when I was depressed because of work and needed to pass the time. Then I read White Noise maybe a decade later but I read, from what I can remember, quickly and carelessly over a visit to my wife's family. I own Falling Man and used to own Underworld but I lent that book to someone, I think, and I never got the book back. No big deal. So when I picked up Cosmopolis in a literary lull, mostly becau...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Alessia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gli avrei dato mezza stella in più.
E’ un libro interessante, profondo, che tocca un’ampia varietà di temi ed offre molti spunti di riflessione, ma a volte ho faticato a seguire il corso della narrazione.
Sarà che è il primo libro di DeLillo che leggo e mi sorge il dubbio che non sia quello giusto da cui iniziare.
Sarà che la storia è atipica e quasi surreale.

Eric Packer, ventottenne miliardario, un po' per sfida un po' per noia, decide di sconvolgere l'economia mondiale e di sperperare il suo im...more Gli avrei dato mezza stella in più.
E’ un libro interessante, profondo, che tocca un’ampia varietà di temi ed offre molti spunti di riflessione, ma a volte ho faticato a seguire il corso della narrazione.
Sarà che è il primo libro di DeLillo che leggo e mi sorge il dubbio che non sia quello giusto da cui iniziare.
Sarà che la storia è atipica e quasi surreale.

Eric Packer, ventottenne miliardario, un po' per sfida un po' per noia, decide di sconvolgere l'economia mondiale e di sperperare il suo immenso patrimonio in borsa.
Tutto inizia quando Eric esce dalla sua splendida residenza per recarsi a bordo della sua limousine dalla parte opposta della città, nel malfamato quartiere di Hell's Kitchen, per andare dal suo parrucchiere di fiducia.
Per una fortuita serie di eventi, il traffico in città è paralizzato e il viaggio durerà un'intera giornata, durante la quale Eric incontra diversi personaggi: sua moglie, alcuni suoi collaboratori, un dottore, la sua amante. Inoltre, qualcuno lì fuori minaccia di ucciderlo.
Dopo essersi imbattuto in diversi avvenimenti (una manifestazione contro il capitalismo, il funerale di uno dei suoi cantanti preferiti,..) Eric arriva finalmente dal suo parrucchiere, ma il suo viaggio non si ferma lì. Decide di andare fino in fondo e infine arriva a trovarsi faccia a faccia con l’uomo che vuole ucciderlo, il suo potenziale assassino.

Questo viaggio dal centro di New York fino all'estrema periferia rappresenta metaforicamente il graduale degrado di Eric, che si conclude inevitabilmente con la morte.
Ma perché Eric decide di rovinarsi? La sua è una scelta perfettamente consapevole, dalla quale avrebbe potuto tirarsi indietro più volte.
Forse perché non è riuscito a “capire lo yen”, perché non accetta di avere difetti.
Forse perché non riesce ad accettare questo presente che è già futuro, lo scorrere inesorabile del tempo che modifica e “rimpiazza” ogni cosa.
Forse si è semplicemente stancato di vivere la sua vita.

Cosmopolis si può riassumere in due parole, tempo e denaro. Gli dèi dei nostri tempi, che regolano l'andamento del mondo e l'esistenza dell’umanità.
E poi c’è la morte. C’è l’omicidio, “la logica conseguenza degli affari”. La morte è la nota di sottofondo che accompagna tutto il libro, l’inevitabile conclusione.
Una bella lettura, per quanto “strana”.
Ma per farmi un'idea più precisa su DeLillo aspetterò di leggere qualche altra opera.(less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Justin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd long heard of the linguistic mastery of Don DeLillo, and he is just that. There's nary another author I've ever come across who uses the English language with such grace and fortitude. From that standpoint, DeLillo is truly a master of the craft, and that's one of the things I discovered in "Cosmopolis," my first DeLillo read. What else did I learn about DeLillo, and why did it drag my rating for this book so low? I'll give you one word: hollow.

DeLillo's prose exceeded my already high expect...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Julka rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-2013, general-fiction

"- Twój genius i twój animus zawsze były złączone - rzekła. - Twój umysł rozkwita na glebie wrogości wobec innych ludzi. Tak samo twoje ciało, jak mi się wydaje. Zła krew daje długie życie".

Powieści postmodernistyczne to dla mnie ciężki orzech do zgryzienia. Znowu czuje się kompletnie zagubiona. Zastanawiam się też, w jaki sposób twórcy dali radę zrobić z tego film, a przecież tak się stało. Tym bardziej, że film nie jest w stanie oddać tego co najbardziej podobało mi się w Cosmopolis, czyli sam...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Kate Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I promised you more reviews of books with a New York theme (did I mention I'm flying in just one week?), and having reviewed The Hours, now it's time for something totally different (and equally magnificent).

For any regular visitors to these pages, you may recall I reviewed Falling Man by Don DeLillo earlier this year. I mentioned then that I was thrilled to have discovered an author who had an extensive back list to explore. Typically, it has taken me some time to get around to reading another...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Tanja rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eric Packer ist 28 Jahre alt, ein absolutes Finanzgenie, sportbesessen - und er ist skrupellos, geht im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes über Leichen, hat so manche Affäre und erkennt seine Frau, die er erst vor ein paar Tagen geheiratet hat, erst auf den dritten Blick wieder. Außerdem nimmt er seine Sonnenbrille so gut wie nie ab - tatsächlich stellt seine Frau erst Tage nach der Hochzeit fest, dass seine Augen blau sind - und will an einem ganz gewöhnlichen New Yorker Aprilmorgen im Jahr 2000 einen n...more Eric Packer ist 28 Jahre alt, ein absolutes Finanzgenie, sportbesessen - und er ist skrupellos, geht im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes über Leichen, hat so manche Affäre und erkennt seine Frau, die er erst vor ein paar Tagen geheiratet hat, erst auf den dritten Blick wieder. Außerdem nimmt er seine Sonnenbrille so gut wie nie ab - tatsächlich stellt seine Frau erst Tage nach der Hochzeit fest, dass seine Augen blau sind - und will an einem ganz gewöhnlichen New Yorker Aprilmorgen im Jahr 2000 einen neuen Haarschnitt.

Während der auf diese Entscheidung folgenden 24 Stunden taucht der Leser ein in die Welt von Packer. Denn auf seinem Weg zu dem Friseur seiner Kindheit kommt ihm so einiges in die Quere. Zum einen die Gedenkzeremonie für einen erst kürzlich verstorbenen Rapper, zum anderen der Besuch des Präsidenten, der zufällig in der Stadt ist und natürlich auch die Ausschreitungen einiger Globalisierungsgegner, die mitten in Manhatten die großen Werbetafeln an den Hochhäusern demolieren und Eric durch puren Zufall gar nicht bemerken.

Und natürlich wäre da auch noch der ein oder andere geplante Zwischenstopp. Ob nun ein tête-à-tête mit seiner Kunstkuratorin, die vom Alter her auch Erics Mutter sein könnte, einem fragwürdigen Schäferstündchen mit seinem neuen Bodyguard und einer Elektroschockpistole oder die eiskalte Erschießung seines ersten Sicherheitsmannes aufgrund eines falschen Blickes - alles ist vorhanden in Don DeLillos Cosmopolis.

Des weiteren spekuliert Eric während seiner Fahrt durch Manhatten mit dem Yen, wobei er letzten Endes nicht nur seine eigenen Milliarden, sondern auch die Millionen seiner Frau verliert. Er hält in seiner Limousine Meetings mit Mitarbeitern und Mitarbeiterinnen ab und schreckt dabei auch nicht davor zurück, sich während eben dieser Meetings einmal ganz genau von seinem Arzt untersuchen zu lassen.

Da von vornherein feststeht, dass Eric Packer diesen Tag nicht überleben wird - schließlich ist die Geschichte außer aus seiner, auch noch aus Sicht seines Mörders (übrigens ein ehemaliger Angestellter Packers) verfasst -, macht das diese rasante, wie auch vollkommen skrupellose Geschichte nur umso reizvoller. Man verflucht Eric und lächelt doch, als er nur kurz vor seinem Tod beschließt, mit seiner Frau ganz von vorne anzufangen - ganz von vorne anzufangen, da er ja alles Geld verloren hat.

Da man Eric Packers Mörder eigentlich ganz gut verstehen kann, Eric selbst jedoch so außergewöhnlich wie kaltschnäuzig ist, fiebert man dem Ende des Buches mit ganz gemischten Gefühlen entgegen. Natürlich gönnt man Erics Mörder den Triumph, aber irgendwo ist da auch noch der Gedanke, an Erics Beschluss, sein Leben grundlegend zu ändern, der ihm irgendwie eine neue Chance einräumen will. Nun ja, wer weiß, ob er sie irgendwie doch bekommt...

Für mich, als absoluten Don DeLillo-Neuling war das eine Premiere der besonderen Art. Nicht nur, dass Eric Packer sich problemlos in die Liste der interessantesten Charaktere der Bücher, die ich bisher gelesen habe, einreihen kann. Nein, Cosmopolis ist überdies auch eine sarkastische Karikatur der Neuzeit, in der wir uns bisweilen sogar in einem Eric Packer wieder entdecken können. Daher schließe ich mit einem Zitat von eben genanntem und empfehle jedem, der Cosmopolis bisher noch nicht gelesen hat, es unbedingt zu lesen:

"Warum haben wir Flughafen? Warum heißen sie Flughafen?"(less)

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Dec 18, 2012 David Mcangus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-fic

My third Delillo book read like a sleep deprived haze. This is perhaps unsurprising, as the novel is a clear character study of a man who is both fierce with detail yet utterly unaware of his surroundings or himself.

The story takes place in a limousine over the course of one day. This limousine is a peculiar entity, because it functions as a sort of Tardis of wheels. It creeps through Manhattan traffic as the protagonist spends billions in investment capitol, obsessively buying yen. While doing...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Trixie Fontaine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books-consumed

Why I picked it up:
*on the "recommended" shelf at the library
*slim/short
*have never read any DeLillo and imagine I'm supposed to
*appealing concept: 1) one day 2) in a limo 3/best)trying to get a haircut
*I want to see the movie

Immediately I decide this guy is like a tiresome douchebag phone customer who is totally enamored of himself, thinks he's brilliant, yammers ON and ON . . . and never cums. The dedication to Paul Auster didn't help having just read his worst book a few months ago. What a li...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Charles Blanchard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cosmopolis – A postmodern novel

In an attempt to define the type of novel that contains the elements in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, I came across the term postmodernism. According to its definition, postmodernist fiction is marked by one or more of the following characteristics:
• playfulness with language
• experimentation in the form of the novel
o less reliance on traditional narrative form
o less reliance on traditional character development
o experimentation with point of view
• experimentation...more

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Aug 28, 2012 John rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-literature

Minor DeLillo, but even minor DeLillo is ok by me. The plot is simple and, for DeLillo, straightforward: in the course of a limousine ride that takes all day to crawl across Manhattan, Eric Packer, a fantastically wealthy young financial whiz, struggles not to lose everything. There are things to admire here, including the central conceit (the novel is essentially a picaresque that covers less that 2 miles in a straight line) and some memorable scenes (particularly the meetings -- in the limo --...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Dan Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A billionaire takes his limo across Manhattan while destroying his financial, emotional, and personal world step by step. The world rages all around him—riots by anarchists, performance art of people dead and stripped down to their nude selves, rats as the unit of currency—it’s all falling apart, and he’s going with it. But he’s a powerful man who recently married an heiress in a loveless, unconsummated relationship; she keeps floating in and out of the story as an oppositional muse reflecting b...more A billionaire takes his limo across Manhattan while destroying his financial, emotional, and personal world step by step. The world rages all around him—riots by anarchists, performance art of people dead and stripped down to their nude selves, rats as the unit of currency—it’s all falling apart, and he’s going with it. But he’s a powerful man who recently married an heiress in a loveless, unconsummated relationship; she keeps floating in and out of the story as an oppositional muse reflecting back what he’s losing. The billionaire destroys his wealth, her wealth, as the city attacks the limo and everything is beaten into crazed submission. He meets his murderer, destroys himself a bit more with a shot in the hand. He needs extremes to truly feel; pain is just one more stimulant. He meets death at the hands of a crazy person.

I read this because multiple people had said “you NEED to read DeLillo,” and now I know why. He writes Heminway-esque prose, if Papa had been of an introspective frame of mind and thought about the uber-wealthy and the kind of mental-emotional life they might have. Think Hemingway meets F Scott Fitzgerald, soaking in a spa of beautifully constructed sentences, ultimately draining into ennui, leaving behind the rime of wasted lives.

The opening sentences:

Sleep failed him more often now, not once or twice a week but four times, five.  What did he do when this happened?  He did not take long walks into the scrolling dawn.  There was no friend he loved enough to harrow with a call.  What was there to say?  It was a matter of silences, not words.

The book is rife with language like this. Evocative and beautiful. But the story is nihilistic at the high ends of capitalism.

He bypassed sleep and rounded into counterpoise, a moonless calm in which every force is balanced by another.  This was the briefest of easings, a small pause in the stir of restless identities.

It’s a stew of sex for its own sake, finances at the billion dollar level, art and poetry and music dissected into disappearing threads.

He understood how much it meant to him, the roll and flip of data on a screen.  He studied the feral diagrams that brought organic patterns into play, birdwing and chambered shell.  It was shallow thinking to maintain that numbers and charts were the cold compression of unruly human energies, every sort of yearning and midnight sweat reduced to lucid units in the financial markets.  In fact data itself was soulful and glowing, a dynamic aspect of the life process.  This was the eloquence of alphabets and numeric systems, now fully realized in electronic form, in the zero-oneness of the world, the digital imperative that defined every breath of the planet’s living billions.  Here was the heave of the biosphere.  Our bodies and oceans were here, knowable and whole.

Glad I read DiLillo, love the style. Depressing as hell, though.
(less)

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Aug 20, 2012 Mandy Jo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This week’s headline? "technology and capital"

Why this book? movie and Amazon

Which book format? hardback sold online

Primary reading environment? lit parking lot

Any preconceived notions? literary lad fiction

Identify most with? "rich and crisp"

Three little words? "the answer was..."

Goes well with? "thick and chewy"

Recommend this to? "scavenger's ravenous heart"

I've read a couple articles of late that talk about what men like to read. From where I'm sitting, these literary lads tend to follow one o...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Christie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: yes

Let it be known, I watch an interview with the director of the movie and Rob Pattinson by Talk Times.

I was inspired to read the novel. The interview was intriguing and made me want to know what this movie was all about. If you’ve seen the trailers it doesn’t give you but a very vague sequence of events, and perhaps not even in the right order. The main character Eric is a very complicated, eccentric individual, filthy rich, and seemingly empty of empathy and emotions of any kind. Although as th...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Rhys Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel portrays a very eventful day in the life of billionaire banker Eric Packer. Written in 2003, DeLillo's prescience is working overtime here, describing as he does the level of greed and narcissism present in today's psychopathic investment bankers. I had the distaste of spending a whole weekend with a character just like Eric Packer and DeLillo's portrayal is right on the nose. Here is a man utterly detached from compassion or empathy, so devoid of the emotions most humans experience a...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It feels weird to say this, but I read this Don DeLillo book so that I could get a handle on the upcoming movie-- I like DeLillo, though everything since Underworld that I've read isn't quite what I want with him-- the satire, such as it is, has somehow moved inside the forcefield of the consciousness we experience the book from, and the result is a much more slippery beast. That is definitely the case here-- obviously, Eric is a huge dick, master of the universe type, but we spend a lot of time...more

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About Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo is an American author best known for his novels, which paint detailed portraits of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He currently lives outside of New York City.

Among the most influential American writers of the past decades, DeLillo has received, among author awards, a National Book Award (White Noise, 1985), a PEN/Faulkner Award (Mao II, 1991), and an American...more

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Quotes from Cosmopolis

“Even when you self-destruct, you want to fail more, lose more, die more than others, stink more than others.” — 59 people liked it

“There are dead stars that still shine because their light is trapped in time. Where do I stand in this light, which does not strictly exist? (155)” — 56 people liked it

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