Frightening. Redemptive. Brilliant.

To say that I am a DeLillo fan would be an understatement. For me, he’s one of the few novelists whose books consistently act as lightning rods for those big, revelatory, a-ha moments where I’m reminded of the myriad intricacies of human life; of what it means to be alive – right here, right now – and that, despite the endless chaos surrounding us, perhaps there’s something redeeming about the human spirit. At the very least, he pulls things out of the periphery – things we don’t want to see or deal with – and brings them to the forefront. And something about that feels redemptive; it makes me feel less alone. This is all to say: upon finishing a DeLillo book, I expect to feel changed. With Zero K, he doesn’t disappoint. This isn’t a book for the faint-hearted or for lovers of plot-driven stories (with DeLillo, this is often the case). Instead, for a relatively short book, DeLillo poses big questions regarding mortality and identity, technology and religion, and the result is rather frightening, though brilliant, all the same. Parts of this book straight up terrified me – the structure, the language, the dialogue becoming dreamlike; a kind of funhouse existentialism. Again, it’s not for everyone. But if you’re looking for a necessary and important book from a necessary and important author, look no further.

5 people found this helpful

So Much Milage in Each Sentence

DeLillo's prose is thought-provoking to the point that you're forced to pause and internalize individual sentences throughout the story. It feels like he took an episode of the Twilight Zone and turned it into a great American novel.

9 people found this helpful

A work of art.

This is not a traditional fiction book. You will not find a clear plot, a conclusion, and character development here. The main character seemingly progresses through haphazard settings and has disconnected internal ramblings. The significance of any of it will not be put on a plate for you. You will have to see what it means for you, and it may not mean the same to everyone.
This is a book you read to appreciate moment by moment, to enjoy the senses and feelings it raises in you, and to contemplate the ideas and thoughts it provokes. If you are into that kind of thing, I think you will find this book to be the work of a genius.

2 people found this helpful

Amazing prose, meandering 'story'

Don's writing reminded me of Cormac McCarthy in that almost-poetic-stream-of-consciousness vein. Beautiful phrases that coalesce in and around some heady topics.

Unfortunately, the prose isn't enough to carry the lengthy character development which is unfortunate, because I kept waiting for the plot to me. (Spoiler: it didn't)

2 people found this helpful

More Musing than Story

Any additional comments?

Just not feeling this story. The characters seem almost as cold as the title and it's hard for me to feel anything for them. For a book in which the main theme is preserving life in order to live beyond one's natural life, the author doesn't take the time to show the beauty of their lives in the first place, so that when we lose these characters to death or to the procedure, it's hard to feel any sense of loss or sadness.

11 people found this helpful

Everybody wants to own the end of the world...

"I'd never felt more human than I did when my mother lay in bed, dying. This was not the not the frailty of a man who is said to be 'only human,' subject to weakness or vulnerability. This was a wave of sadness and loss that made me understand that I was a man expanded by grief."
― Don DeLillo, Zero K

I first jumped into DeLillo's unique, hypnotic prose when I read Mao II. His prose swelled for me like a sacred mantra. There were other writers before that seduced me, that blew me away with their measured prose, or their erratic narration, but DeLillo was something else. His prose is poetic, weird, haunting, searing. Images grow and then dematerialize. He hints at the future, creates a fabric of tension, and pulls back. Each of his books seems to push towards a vision of our end. He looks at the refuse of civilization, the excesses of capitalism, "the end zone of ancient time". He is a dark worm, pushing through the dirt and the grime and the dark caverns created by our existential rot.

He is obsesses over words, descriptions, names. He is a prose prophet for a technological age. He doesn't always hit it out of the park (dare I call those Pafkos?). Many of his more recent books: Cosmopolis, Point Omega, The Body Artist didn't seem to live up to the expectations created by Mao II, White Noise, Libra, Underworld. His five novels from the Names (1982) to Underworld (1997) seems only equaled by Philip Roth's series of five novels from Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993) to The Human Stain (2000).

The last couple books DeLillo delivered seemed to be experimentations, theories, unfinished paintings that hint at the ground DeLillo loves (technology, paranoia, death, history, humanity, religion). With this novel, DeLillo seems to have perhaps not jumped up to his highest shelf. (See MII, WN, L, U), but close. This is a book that belongs next to Falling Man, End Zone, Americana*, the Names*.

I don't want to give too much of the book away, but as I read this unsettling novel, I kept on thinking of modern-day technology pharaohs. My brother and I were having a conversation the other day about how the life of a millionaire and a billionaire isn't that different. There is just so many things you can literally buy. Even when they are buying expensive shirts and pants the styles and cuts for those worth $100M and those worth $100B aren't going to be THAT different. Yes, the billionaire might own an Island instead of just a home, but ultimately, the billionaire can't live in more than one home at a time. The millionaire might be able to buy $4000 pants when you and I can only, rationally, expect to buy pants in the $40 - $140 range. However, the billionaire isn't able to just add a couple zeros to the millionaire's pants. There is no market for $40,000 pants. So, the average $B$ lives about like the average $M$, except in a couple small ways.

Death, or the desire to escape death, may be one of those places where only those with significant, GDP-sized capital, can tread. Thus those with wealth that involves 9+zeros become the modern-day pharaohs of death. They are the only ones with the capacity to fight against the dying of the light with money, medicine, and technology. Money absolutely has become their god, and perhaps in 10, 15, or 20 years their GOD might actually deliver them from death. Instead of pyramids of stone, we might see pyramids of stainless steel and ice. Frozen mummies surrounded by bytes instead of jewelry and gold, these modern-day pharaohs may one-day-soon be waited on by high-priests with PhDs in computers science; the ceremonies and rituals of religion will be replaced with a transhumanist incantations and rites.

But when our modern-day pharaoh's side-step death, what does that exactly mean as far as life? That is the territory of DeLillo. Listen to his prose prayers, and prepare yourself for salvation, death, and perhaps even eternal life.

* I'm going here by reputation not experience since I have yet to read these two.

17 people found this helpful

Booooring

I stuck with this book for a couple of hours because of the great reviews it got. But I have four graduate degrees and have published several books of my own with good publishers, so I don't have to pretend to like something just to sound intellectual. Part of the problem might be the flat, droning reading, but this book just maunders on and on and on and on in interminable pseudophilosophy. Other recent novels about death, notably Jose Saramago's Death, Interrupted, are much better.

1 person found this helpful

Depressingly good

I think this doesn't measure up to earlier novels by DeLillo, but it's a very, very good book. It's still often as distantly analytical and chilled as is typical for him, but god it's sad.

1 person found this helpful

well done

I enjoyed the narration of this book. I had to pose from time to time and say Wow something to think about.

3 people found this helpful

A Great Warm Up for DeLillo

I tried Underworld but didn't like it after the first two hundred pages or so. Many people encouraged me to not give up on DeLillo so I tried this short book and I'm glad I did. The story very early on confronts the reader with some very interesting philosophical questions but manages to do so in a less patronizing way than simply saying "here is the conflict" like a lot of novels do. This audio book also has excellent narration.