Written during the mid-period of his career and containing some of his best writing, Mao II is an ideal entry point for the DeLillo-neophyte. Like his creator, the central character, Bill Gray, is a reclusive novelist. For decades he has lived in isolation from the larger world, struggling with an incomplete fiction. Living with him are an amanuensis, Scott, and Scott's girlfriend Karen, recently escaped from the Moonies. The theme of the novel is summarized in the last line of the first chapter: "The future belongs to crowds." This observation comes after a bravura description and analysis of the mass wedding at Yankee Stadium. In the second half of the book, Bill abandons Scott and Karen to undertake a kind of diplomatic mission. Charged with negotiating the release of a French poet from his captors in Palestine, Bill soon realizes that the cultural importance of free thought is being replaced by collective nihilism. Experienced DeLillo-readers will recognize the pervasive air of detachment, the way events wash over his characters, and whether this irritates will to a large extent determine your enjoyment of the book. I liked it.