Eric Packer is a twenty-eight-year-old
multi-billionaire asset manager. We join him on what will become a
particularly eventful April day in turn of the twenty-first century
Manhattan. He's on a personal odyssey, to get a haircut...
Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis
is a witty commentary on capitalism. This two hundred page "poem prose
about New York" (according to Blake Morrison in The Guardian) is both
cynical in its approach and satirical in its delivery. The seasoned writer
engages the reader with a rhythmical to-ing and fro-ing between topical
issues and the more mundane nuisances of life; the former shadowing the latter.
We begin with sleep-depravity and after the first
few paragraphs, perhaps, start to wonder: what's the point? It is not until
(only a little) later that realisation dawns: it is through the display of
these trivialities such as the protagonist's vain attempts to calm himself down
that DeLillo skilfully shapes the reader's perception of the young man's type
‘A’ characterisation, of whom this entire novel concerns. In some ways, Eric
Packer could be considered as the microcosm to his nation's macro-cosmic
situation. As though he is the human representation of what is right, but in
many ways not ideal with the society in which he thrives. His reveries, habits
and pedantic tendencies, for example, all act as a guide to later actions, or
shall we say reactions...?
This is the sort of book I would have enjoyed even
AFTER knowing the full plot summary. DeLillo writes with style and minute
precision in a way that simply demands the attention of the reader. This book
could be finished in a day. Yet there is one thing: the pace, especially where
sentence structures are concerned. The story is as much for the characters as
it is for the readers, meaning that the language and, indeed, its form is
so internalised, so in tune to the character's perspective that it can be
difficult to grasp. The reader and the writer do not quite have the same
running start and it takes a little bit of focus to truly delve into the story.
Nevertheless, it's an endeavour worth making and one of those books that will
keep.
By Patricia, U6
If you have a book that you'd like to review for the blog, send your submission to library@bgs.bristol.sch.uk