Underworld
by Don DeLillo · first published 1997
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Long, sprawling novel with vivid, believable characters that rewards patient reading. It starts slowly but becomes deeply satisfying, suited to those who enjoy dense literary fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Nick Shay and Kiara Sax knew each other once, intimately and they meet again in the Sahara desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, she is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence. Underworld is a story of men and women together and apart, seen in deep clear detail and in stadium sized panoramas, shadowed throughout by the overarching conflict of The Cold War. It is a novel that accepts every challenge of these extraordinary -- Don DeLillos's greatest and most powerful work of fiction. -Back Cover
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A few months ago I spent an entire Saturday reading a long book (Underworld by Don DeLillo) l, deliberately with my phone off. I walked around, went to a restaurant, sat on a bench in the park, all with just the book. It was one of the most “grounded” days I’ve had in years,…
on “I Learned to Read Again” ↗The whole practice of counting how many books you read is ridiculous. I recently read Don DeLillo's Underworld. It's 850 pages long and some sections can be kind of a slog. But it was one of the most satisfying books I've ever read. It took me 4 months to get through it. Am I really worse off because I'm reading…
on “By Quitting Social Media You Could Read 200 Books a Year” ↗Don DeLillo - "Underworld" Kind of slow to get going, but absolutely fascinating and real characters. Next up: Murakami - "Norwegian Wood"
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗…letting it all come out in a Kerouacian-stream without much thought for concision. If it helps anyone decide whether to give it a go, two recent books I read and loved were 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, and Underworld by Don DeLillo, and Infinite Jest is satisfying me in the hard-earned way they both did.
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗…it. Moby Dick is truly an awe-inspiring experience. Also, don't skip the whaling chapters. They are secretly the best parts of the book. Another book that gives off very similar vibes is Don DeLillo's Underworld.
on “Ask HN: I only read tech/business books – recommend me some fiction?” ↗Don Delillo’s Underworld is an amazing novel with some garbology themes.
on “Garbology” ↗Is anyone here a DeLillo fan? Seems like a natural place for me to ask for recommendations. If I loved White Noise but didn't get much from Underworld, which DeLillo book would be best to read next?
on “Don DeLillo deserves the Nobel” ↗…Chabon, Michael: Werewolves in Their Youth - Chorlton, Windsor: Latitude Zero - Connelly, Michael: The Poet - Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness - Constantine, K. C.: Family Values - DeLillo, Don: Underworld - DeMille, Nelson: Cathedral - DeMille, Nelson: The Gold Coast - Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist - Dobyns, Stephen: Common Carnage - Dobyns, Stephen: The Church of Dead Girls - Doyle, Roddy:…
on “Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive? (2015)” ↗When it comes to post-Underworld DeLillo, as far as I am concerned his major novel of that period, and really the only work that sticks in the memory after a few weeks (and I have read them all) is Falling Man. If you are asking about…
on “The Genius of Don DeLillo’s Post-Underworld Work (2016)” ↗…job and a family and a fully executed will, already, at your age, because the whole point is to die prepared, die legal, with all the papers signed. Die liquid, so they can convert to cash." (DeLillo, Underworld)
on “Tell HN: I have the perfect job, why is it not enough?” ↗I _liked_ but didn’t _love_ Underworld. Only DeLillo I’ve read so far, but maybe I need to move White Noise up on my list.
on “Shocks to the System: Don DeLillo’s Novels of the Cold War and Its Aftermath” ↗