Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheer Brilliance, 8 Aug 2001
By A Customer
Having read Underworld, I though DeLillo would never have been able to prodece a book that would dazzle me more ... but Mao II is just that book. The sheer beauty of the prose is in places breathtaking, and the enormity of the ideas and themes, played out in the small details of characters lives and fragments of images viewed on television screens, held me engaged enough to finish the book in one sitting. There are sections I have returned to again and again - The photographing of Bill Gray, the depiction of Khomeni's funeral - and I have yet to not find the return worthwhile. Yes, Underworld is a huge and great novel - but for literary genius, this is the one to read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Supremely written., 10 May 2002
DeLillo's intelligence is astounding; his observations seem to clarify many uncatergorised fears that makes us 'all to human'; the scope and depth of his imagination is frightening: and all in all this is definitely a fantastic read.In a nutshell, the plot is secondary to the ideas and themes that run throughout this epic novel - the power of imagery (photgraphs, mainly) and words, global terrorism and movements. Of these themes, the most striking is the photograph, and, in a sense, how the definite image of an event has come to resemble more than the reality itself.
The central characters are a female photographer and a reclusive author, who come together for a once-in-a-lifetime photo shoot of the hermit novelist, and it is the build-up and culmination of this which makes up the rest of the novel. The exchange here is one of the most brilliantly written, thoughtful, most inspiring pieces fo literature I've ever read, and i recommend everyone to give it a go merely for this alone. Can't say too much about the plot, since there isn't really one. But, if a storyline is essential to your enjoyment of a book, I suggest leaving this alone . . . On second thoughts - give it a go and it'll probably change your stance.
For this reason, though, it loses one star.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reread and Re-Enjoyed This Modern Classic, 10 Aug 2000
By A Customer
This fascinating novel probes the connection between isolation and mass movements in the modern world. In doing so, DeLillo is intensely personal, creating some memorable characters, who are visually and emotionally there, on the page, in full brilliance and confusion. He also employs sublime writing, which captures experiences, images, or ideas of individual isolation or mass movements and then juxtaposes them, showing weird but profound connections. My favorite pages are 149-153, where DeLillo describes New York City's Tompkins Square in the early nineties. Then, drug abusers, the mentally ill, and the homeless turned this lovely neighborhood square into a shambling, threatening shantytown. If you missed it, DeLillo has saved the moment. The central figure in this book is Bill Gray, an isolated writer with a wide and discerning following. Anyone who wants to write might ponder two of his insights: "Writing is bad for the soul when you get right down to it. It protects your worst tendencies." (page198); or, "It was the writing that caused his life to disappear." (page 215).
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