Subject: Re: Don DeLillo
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 17:00:51 GMT
On Sun, Dec 09, 2001 at 05:08:25AM +0800, Graham Preston wrote:
> I meant to write into the list about this in August, but damn
> university has delayed this until now.
Indeed ... I know what you mean. I've had your message in my mailbox
awaiting a reply for weeks now. Sorry for the delay.
> So: what did everyone think about *The Body Artist* by Don DeLillo?
> I thought it was slightly tedious and it read like a very long 100 pages.
I confess to a bit of venality: I have the book but it's an
autographed first edition, and I can't bring myself to handle it
enough to read it! I know, I'm bad. But we recently did an informal
survey of some first editions we've managed to collect, and a quick
talley turned up a (retail) value of several thousand dollars in a
relatively small stack of pretty mediocre books.
So, ever since, I've become paranoid about handling "rare" books
(however you want to define "rare"), though unlike with the DeLillo,
most of these (with the exception of the rare Hemingway) are books by
people I don't particularly care for, or whom I actively loathe, and
it's pure greed at work, I freely admit. I am not especially greedy,
but I was overwhelmed to find that a modest collection of titles could
be worth so much in the terms rare-book dealers define.
But DeLillo I like very much, and am saving that title for posterity.
So, I have to get me another working copy!
> Also, have any of you read DeLillo's essay about Sept. 11 in Harper's,
> yet?
Oh, yes. I thought it was simplistic in parts; demanding in others;
heartbreaking at certain moments; and utterly memorable overall. He
manages to capture moments in time in a way that few writers do.
It was eerie to see his style work in so appropriate an environment.
That is, he often writes of alienated people in apocalyptic settings.
In this essay, that style and approach worked quite well, because it
was more fitting than one might have thought at first.
I suppose that I could go on and on about DeLillo, because (like
several others here) I like him a lot, but I won't digress so much.
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who read the essay and
either liked or disliked it.
> And before this is a total digression: in the same issue of Harper's,
> there's a small peice about what a writer found inside the cover of
> *Franny and Zooey*. It's moderately amusing.
Yes, that was amusing!
--tim o'connor
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