Underworld
Don DeLillo
1997
Around 830 pages
It might surprise you to learn that I am not the biggest sports fan, and if I were going to name the most boring sport, I would probably say baseball. So of course that's the one that DeLillo chooses to write his magnum opus on. We have not been clicking from the start, so this is not a surprise. Of course, I still managed to like Willard and His Bowling Trophies without liking bowling, so I didn't give up hope right away.
So baseball fans will probably have heard of the home run by Bobby Thomson, which forms the basis of this novel. In DeLillo's version, the game winning ball was caught by a black fan named Cotter Martin. The remainder of the story is told in reverse chronological order and details the life of Nick Shay, who ends up in possession of the baseball.
DeLillo's structure and style are too chaotic for me, and the subjects explored here just did not interest me in the slightest. Which of course is not a fault of the writing, not everything is for everybody. Unfortunately for me, this is not the last DeLillo on the List.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.
DeLillo said that the front page of The New York Times on October 4, 1951 inspired Underworld.
UP NEXT: Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
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