Ratner's Star
by Don DeLillo · first published 1976
5mentions
1recommended by
5HN commenters
2019–2023first – last mentioned
20% recommend80% neutral
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The Names is probably DD's best novel — what's not in these particular volumes, however, is his collection of extraordinary short novels that filled the 70s (Ratner's Star is the major exception; this is a monster-sized book, and it is a strange precursor to Stephenson's middle work). End Zone, Great Jones Street, Players, and Running Dog are all amazing portraits of the…
on “Shocks to the System: Don DeLillo’s Novels of the Cold War and Its Aftermath” ↗The first DeLillo book I ever read was Ratner’s Star, inspired by the many quotations Clifford Pickover interspersed throughout his mid- to late-nineties works. One such quote haunts me to this very day: “No definition of ‘science’ can be complete without…
on “Don DeLillo deserves the Nobel” ↗…books by long dead authors). I've read a few. I think Libra was the best one. I also read Falling Man, Cosmopolis, and The Body Artist. He has a wonderful writing style. I've been trying to get through Ratner's Star for years. It's not bad but I suppose it's just not the most compelling.
on “Don DeLillo deserves the Nobel” ↗If I did, I think I would try Ratner's Star, as that seems his most interesting novel (at least in what it attempted, whether successful or not). But I'm in no hurry.
on “Philip Pullman: ‘I had to grow up before I could cope with Middlemarch’” ↗…contemporary American life in a way that resonants with me: unmistakably American, involved, but also detached. He's written about everything from foreign policy (The Names), to academia (White Noise, Ratner's Star), to JFK's assassination (Libra), to the Cold War (Underworld), to finance (Cosmopolis), to 9/11 (Falling Man), to the Iraq War (Point Omega), to start-up culture and worship of technology (Zero K).
on “Don DeLillo, The Art of Fiction No. 135 (1993)” ↗