I accept that some people love this book, but those people must find plot of minimal importance. There is a very tiny story going on here, but it's not easy to find. While I was reading this book, people asked what it was about, and I was at a loss to tell them. DeLillo loves to make points and create atmosphere through repetition, not just chapter by chapter, but sometimes sentence by sentence, a style that some may like, but which drove me nuts. Every now and then, you'll read a passage, or a line that blows you away, but those nuggets are not worth the effort. Towards the end of the book, the plot picks up a bit but by then, you don't care.
I came to the conclusion that DeLillo is too much in love with his own voice-- he really needs a strong editor who will tell him to shut up. Now, compare this book to Moby Dick, another looong book, but one which has a gripping plot. Melville appears to stroll off down side paths now and then, but not only are these meanderings interesting in themselves, but they also serve to inform the rest of the story. With DeLillo, that's missing.
If you like to get lost in long books which are heavy on plot, try Lord of the Rings, or Shogun or Moby Dick or Aztec, not Underworld.
Don DeLillo was awarded the 1999 Jerusalem Prize for a writer whose work expresses the theme of freedom of the individual in society.More at Barnes & Noble.com
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