Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo was disappointing and ranks as my worst book of 2007. Perhaps I expect too much from DeLillo. I’m an ardent fan of his work, having started with Ratner’s Star and read everything except Players and the new Falling Man. The cadence of DeLillo’s work is always engrossing, a stylized, off-kilter pacing, rich description and dialog that is hyper-real.
White Noise, The Names, Americana and Underworld are some of my favorite novels. They evoke a mood, a time, and a place, provoking thought on both modern and timeless themes. With Cosmopolis, all that once seemed so effortless for DeLillo now seems forced. It feels like an attempt to modernize, to make himself more relevant to the Internet age.
Cosmopolis starts out promisingly enough. There are descriptions and turns of phrase that rival those of his best work. We follow Eric Packer as he sets out in his white limousine, beset by the confusion of a modern world fraught with instant success and the conflict between technology and humanity. The set-up is good, and there’s a real vehicle (both literal and metaphoric) to move the plot along.
Sure enough Eric gets caught in New York traffic. But so does DeLillo’s focus. The deconstruction of Eric Packer is clunky and the happenstances that occur are forced and the returning phrases (a DeLillo trademark) just don’t seem to work. Usually, these returning phrases, these echoes of the character’s subconscious, help to shape the mood and tone of the novel. They’re the border collie of his prose.
Cosmopolis is nothing if not challenging, thought-provoking, and utterly different.
That’s what the Chicago Sun-Times had to say about Cosmopolis. That should have been an warning, a red flag, since it says absolutely nothing positive about the book. Quintessential critic-speak for an author that they can’t quite pan given his track record and following.
Avoid Cosmopolis and instead pick up any DeLillo work before Underworld.
