This is not a good book

This is not a good book.

this is now a Mason & Dixon thread

Was Don DeLillo ever good?

why not, OP??? It's absolutely fantastic. Babette is amazing. DeLillo outlines here and also in Underworld why you shouldn't date a girl who reads (Cf. Marion in Underworld and all his wives here). When Babette out of all people in literature cheated on the protag I was devastated. Cuckoldry really reigns through the canon because it's such a fascination, but at least we find some solace in Underworld with the older couple... A line that stood out for me (I've only read it once) is "I didn't turn off the radio to think. I turned off the radio to stop thinking."

Nah. It is a good book. I love the grandpa's exit speech.

"Don't worry about me," he said. "The little limp means nothing. People my age limp. A limp is a natural thing at a certain age. Forget the cough. It's healthy to cough. You move the stuff around. The stuff can't harm you as long as it doesn't settle in one spot and stay there for years. So the cough's all right. So is the insomnia. The insomnia's all right. What do I gain by sleeping? You reach an age when every minute of sleep is one less minute to do useful things. To cough or limp. Never mind the women. The women are all right. We rent a cassette and have some sex. It pumps blood to the heart. Forget the cigarettes. I like to tell myself I'm getting away with something. Let the Mormons quit smoking. They'll die of something just as bad. The money's no problem. I'm all set incomewise. Zero pensions, zero savings, zero stocks and bonds. So you don't have to worry about that. That's all taken care of. Never mind the teeth. The teeth are all right. The looser they are, the more you can wobble them with your tongue. It gives the tongue something to do. Don't worry about the shakes. Everybody gets the shakes now and then. It's
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only the left hand anyway. The way to enjoy the shakes is pretend it's somebody else's hand. Never mind the sudden and unexplained weight loss. There's no point eating what you can't see. Don't worry about the eyes. The eyes can't get any worse than they are now. Forget the mind completely. The mind goes before the body. That's the way it's supposed to be. So don't worry about the mind. The mind is all right. Worry about the car. The steering's all awry. The brakes were recalled three times. The hood shoots up on pothole terrain."

no, except for a few passages in underworld

about to start this. As in tonight. What should I keep in mind as I read?

Reading this rn. Into it so far.

I had to read this for an American Lit class in college, but I really liked it. I just recently finished up Underworld as well and that was pretty okay.

Did Daniel Clowes do the cover? Pretty sweet

Consider the frame narrative and how it effects the actual Mason and Dixon story. I don't know. I really enjoyed it but would get lost or confused sometimes.

How far are you?

read up on both charles mason and jeremiah dixon before you start or you'll have no idea whats going on

>Nah. It is a good book. I love the grandpa's exit speech.

Nah. it starts well (or maybe the clipped sentences and consequent sense of speed just feel refreshing initially) but reveals itself to be incorrigibly middlebrow by the halfway mark. Dellilo's "style" is on the level of cleverish dialogue in an above-average sitcom. it grew so stale i quit 25 pages from the end, wasnt even worth another hour to finish it

>25 pages
>an hour

pls no bully

>Dellilo's "style" is on the level of cleverish dialogue in an above-average sitcom
That's on purpose you realize?

yea, to write breezy unchallenging books that sell well

le triggered white family

it's shit

Some of us don't speedread. For me, 25 pages is more like 2.5 hours. Then again I almost exclusively read non-fiction.

I enjoy it a lot. I teach it to my ap students, mostly in the context of rhetorical/literary analysis i.e. what arguments is delillo making and how is he using literary devices to make those. some of them get a lot of mileage out of it, some don't. text lends itself well to that kind of thing

With the way people talk about White Noise I had pretty high expectations. I thought Falling Man was good, and especially poignant. I was surprised to see it was seen as one of his worst.

White Noise was a lot different. Not worse per se but I personally preferred Falling Man. I'll have to give his other books a shot eventually but White Noise turned me off for a bit.

it depends on the book. obv you don't read ulysses at 25 pages/hour. this one happens to read fast

What does Manson have to do with it

Keep the Pynchon wiki open to get the references. There's some shit in there that you absolutely won't get unless you're knowledgeable in colonial American history.