Underworld Audiobook

" I loved the narrative line of baseball and how it reflects modern concerns, but boy was it a slog of a read. "

" It took well over a year, but I finally finished this 800+ page book. While Dom DeLillo is a fantastic writer, the point of this book is still not clear to me. Maybe if I'd been able to read this book in a shorter amount of time I'd get it. I had zero empathy or compassion for any of the characters in the book. It's not that they were antiheroes, I just didn't care about them. Would I recommend this? Sure, because I'd like to see if someone else understands this hefty tome. "

" probably one of the greatest Novels of the Twentieth Century, arguably the best book I've ever read. A sprawling epic. "

" Best first 60 pages of a book, ever. "

" I wanted so much more for these characters whom I felt so invested in. I must be quite a Pollyanna because I want so much for everyone to have a happy little time! Wonderful writing and so much great history. I like the book very much. "

" Unravels as you read, amazingly beautiful language that opens little cracks in places, feelings, senses that are normally out of reach. A world of its own, it is. "

" I read the prologue to "Underworld" when it was published as a novella in Harper's with the title "Pafko at the Wall". It stands beautifully alone and was recently republished that way. It loses something by being relegated to prologue status here, especially since the book that follows is very tenuously connected to it. This is one of those behemoth novels, like much of Pynchon's and Rushdie's, that's less than the sum of its parts, though some of the parts are breathtaking. Ultimately it founders on the twin icebergs that have plagued DeLillo all along: an excessively cerebral structure which connects events in the book in purely intellectual ways, and a lack of memorable characters. DeLillo's weak points have always been character and dialogue, and when all characters are seen from such an icy remove and all speak in arch, elliptical DeLillo-speak, it's hard to invest in them. DeLillo and a lot of his readers would say that's the point, and his shorter books get away with it, but a huge novel needs strong characters, a human dimension to sweep us along. Without that, we get fascinating set pieces, precise if often inscrutable writing, a sense of history, but not enough to hold it all together. I'm looking back on this more than ten years later, of course, and if life were long enough I might give it another go. But I recently did just that with DeLillo's "Players" and I'm starting to wonder if I'm growing out of his work. I'll go back to one or two others I remember more fondly ("Mao II" in particular) to test this hypothesis... "

" Vast, sprawling novel taking the whole of twentieth century American history as its subject. A wonder of modern literature. "

" This DeLillo dude is clearly a talented writer. But even good writers have to write about something. 650 pages into this 800+ page book and I still had no idea what this is about. I suppose it's a mood piece. But after 650 pages I lost the mood and gave up. "

" The first chapter is breathtaking. The rest, a snorefest. How can he leave the beautiful baseball cosmos behind in favor of egocentric self conscious existential rambling blah? I ain't no middle-aged man in crisis. Give me the ecstatic or give me nothing. "

" Unimaginably good. Subtle, deep, with rich characters and such perfect, involving, compelling writing. "

" Great book that includes much of the later half of the 20th century. "

" Took forever to get nowhere. Couldn't get into it. "

" Complete. Really, DeLillo did not leave anything unsaid, but it maintained a tight involvement with me as the reader, too. When I realized he was writing this and deliberately keeping the reader at arms length, I was all the more intrigued. "

" Intense...read 400 of 827 pages and returned to library. "

" Another great-premise, great-disappointment read for me. With all of the topics it covers-- the Zapruder film, the infamous Rolling Stones doc Cocksucker Blues, and the fictional Highway Killer videotape, I expected a hell of a lot more from this. Instead, it was an 800+ page letdown. "

" Reading the varied reviews proves to me my theory: Delillo is definitely a "writer's writer." If you don't "get it," I feel no angst or animosity towards you. I only feel my deepest sympathies. "

" Underworld is a great read. It's lengthy, but I think reads much faster than novels of similar girth. Perhaps not the DeLillo to begin with, but a great book nevertheless. "

" The first chapter is baseball-heavy but after that it's 100 % juicy Don DeLillo "

" The more narrow the view in a story, the greater the universality. As we work our way through the twists and turns of (fictional) lives recounted, we see the second half of the twentieth century crystallize in a way no historical account could match. "

" Probably one of the best books of that decade, if not THE best . The only book I can remember which, upon finishing, when I put it down actually said, "Wow." Out loud, to no one in particular. "

" Interesting read, yet somehow unsatisfying. One of those books I couldn't put down, but came away wanting more. "

" So longwinded and meandering and brain-deadening that it could only have been written by someone who thinks his own shit smells good. "

" 2.5 stars - loved certain parts, but other parts bored me. very long book "

" I loved the narrative line of baseball and how it reflects modern concerns, but boy was it a slog of a read. "

" Listened to this and read parts. Sometime after 2001 -- date is approximate. "

" Excellent, though very very long book. Highly recommended. "

" I was surprised how much I liked this book. I really liked this book so put your DeLillo preconceptions away. "

" Massive; I set the goal of finishing this monster before the end of the millenium an finished the night before. Impressive, incomprehensible at times. Notable for the first chapter on the infamous Giants-Dodgers playoff, and one sequence where a Jesuit describes the parts of a shoe. "

" Really don't get the hype on this one. Good read. Makes you think, but not as deep as it pretends to be, and perhaps seemed more intelligent than it is when it was released in the early days of the internet boom. "