964. The Body Artist

The Body Artist
Don DeLillo
2001
Around 130 pages

We continue saying goodbye to big names on this List with our final DeLillo read, and he decides to send us on our way with a novella that is written in such a complicated style that it feels much longer than it is. Here's my official DeLillo ranking:

1. Libra

2. The Names

3. Underworld

4. Mao II

5. The Body Artist

6. Ratner's Star

7. White Noise

DeLillo is one of those novelists whose style is just not a match for me, no matter how many times we try to make it work romantically.

In The Body Artist, Rey Robles dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is found in his first wife's apartment, which adds extra sting to his grieving third and current wife, Lauren. Then a bunch of weird stuff happens, it's hard to know what's real, and Lauren is a performance artist, so you know feelings are going to be processed in the most obnoxious way possible.

This reminded me of an insufferable movie, A Ghost Story, which was 92 minutes of a dead man standing with a sheet over his head, haunting his widowed wife. I liked this novel more, because it took me less than 92 minutes to read.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2016.

UP NEXT: Don't Move by Margaret Mazzantini