Americana

"Into the vortex of the cliche'" David thinks his wife will lead him. Later, Sullivan tells David, the main characdter, "David, you're a lovable cliche' " What are these references to a "cliche' " but a sly authorial nod to the greatest cliche' of all, the wriging of the the "great American novel". And yet, where's there's smoke there's fire, where there's a cliche' there's something that initially prompted it. And while DeLillo may make fun of the "great American novel" he comes tantalizingly close to writing one.It's a sneaky novel, sneaky in that writing about the American experience, trying to make some sense of whether it is more a dream of innocence or a nightmare of technological power which has waged 20th century wars across the planet. It ends by deciding "the literature I had been confronting these past days [were] archetypes of the dismal mystery" The novel ends in "silence and darkness", David leaving arguably a low point in American history and culture, the place where JFK was assassinated in Dallas, and returning to where he began, New York, a "falling man" [interestingly, the title of his later post 9-11 novel} involved in advertising, the world in which "words and meaning were at odds".Advertising, it is stated, moves the viewer from the "first to the third person", suggesting that American's relentless material success has removed authenticity from the experience of the individual and diminished his existence by making him into a consumer, a person who fulfills himself only by viewing images and trying to emulate them. A camera shot is described of a group of ladies with shopping bags, "a fabulous salute to the forgetfulness of being. What better proof that they have been alive?" America, then, is a land of infinitely multiple and created images. To consume these images is to forget that you are a human being, that you are alive. Purposefully, most of this novel uses the third person; "David Bell" cannot continually exist as an "I" - he has been corrupted by America.There are a number of fleeting references to James Joyce whose "young artist" could only escape the moral and artistic death of a corrupt Ireland by going into exile. It is no accident that early in AMERICANA, David Bell does use the first person, "I" and mentions that he too is in exile, "It's time to run the film again. . . not much to do on this island." The act of trying to solve the mystery of America, its contradictions and paradoxes, finally is overwhelming, and all one can do is to cinematically (the art form most developed in America) run the film again, take one more look at the images, and then . . . the rest is up to the reader.

Americana is a personal and at-times autobiographical novel by a young Don DeLillo that serves as an important touchstone for both wartime mid-60s America and DeLillo's epic body of work to come. It's easy to explain it away as a hip, jaded, ironic novel of postmodern sensibilities. A young, handsome television executive slowly loses his mind amid a funhouse of commerce and sloganeering. But in another fashion, the novel is also intensely modern in its themes and design. In the limited interviews he has agreed to, DeLillo has eschewed the "postmodern" label (in short, to borrow Frederic Jameson's definition, a writer whose work details "the cultural logic of late-capitalism") by describing himself simply as a novelist, a writer of novels. The second of the novel's four parts, for instance, is a near-direct allusion to Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The overt theme of Americana is not subtle – America's launch into vast corporate-commercialism (achieved by way of global imperialism) has left in its wake a chasm of empty, malformed individuals, spoiled and stupid, purchasing items they don't need, watching TV shows they can't remember, wanting for something they don't know they're wanting for, haunted by a lowdown awareness that there is something more to it all than this. DeLillo lays this on thick on almost every page, but his use of language is fresh and very much his own. The subconscious theme of the novel is the ancient literary one: human intelligence suffers loneliness and disjointness in a world whose codes are shifting in some profound way all the time. DeLillo's deployment of language and character in order to communicate this message is masterful. It is clear he worked on this book for a long time, and discovered his skills as he was working on it. His prose is animated by the subconscious – what is described as a weakness ("plotlessness") can also be seen as his greatest strength, which is that his works navigate a terrain below where most novels care to operate. Whether or not you enjoy this style comes down to personal taste and to what it is you're after as a reader. But Americana ranks for me as one of the most useful books to read if you want to learn how to write properly about what a mediascape developing at the speed of Moore's law does to individuals' speech, psyche, politics, intellect, and relationships.

In Americana, Don Delillo's first novel, David Bell begins by claiming, "Then we came to the end of another dull and lurid year." This is the emptiness he struggles with, his own personal emptiness. The office politics and sexual politics of his world are repetitive to the degree that he is forced to pump them full of strange insincerities. Strange memo's from an unknown source and shooting wads of crumpled paper into the waste basket become his primary professional concerns; while sexually, he beds women distantly, almost as a form of social masturbation. At one point, when discussing his mother, and her death, David confesses that it will be hard to not pump it up with smoke to hide the fire. This confession admits that even his own personal history is somewhat lost to him. When the opportunity presents itself, he sees a quest through Americana as one of personal rediscovery. But Americana overshadows the discovery of David Bell. David is swallowed by the idiosyncrasies of the U.S. He becomes more and more removed from himself, realizing, you can't really run away from the one thing you want to escape... yourself. In Americana, you can see the style and subjects that will become White Noise and Underworld with time. You also get a disturbing image of corporate America's spirtual life in the late 1990's. Delillo is able to predict that existential crisis and alienation of our youth's future.

entertaining take on america. the characters are a bit one-dimensional. the story plot isn't really going anywhere. conclusion wek.

El libro me ha llegado rápido y en perfecto estado, por un precio bastante asequible para este tipo de libros de Penguin, ya que lo compré a través de Amazon Warehouse. Parece como si nadie lo hubiera leído, de hecho estoy casi seguro de que nadie lo ha hecho. Con respecto al libro en sí, Todavía no he terminado de leerlo, pero los que conocen la narrativa de Don DeLillo disfrutarán mucho con este libro, que al principio comienza con su protagonista viviendo el sueño americano pero después sintiendo la necesidad de escapar de él y de vivir la realidad tal y como es. Eso sí, no es un libro que sea fácil de leer para hablantes no nativos de inglés, y mucho menos para personas que no están acostumbradas a leer narrativa más experimental o menos convencional en lo que a estilo y estructura se refiere. Es también una novela con contenido bastante obsceno, algo también a tener en cuenta. Pero eso sí, es uno de los libros que estoy leyendo últimamente que mejor representa la doble cara del éxito del sueño americano.

DeLillo è lo scrittore che stimo maggiormente, spesso rimango ammutolito davanti alla sua bravura.Credo che l'autore possieda una consapevolezza profonda, vasta e matura della natura umana, ed in particolare del delirio insito nella società Americana, ormai esportato e globalizzato.La sua satira è latente, mai scontata, paradossale ed esistenziale; macabra, reale.Ogni suo testo ha una valenza profetica intrinseca, piuttosto visibile in quest'opera edita agli inizi degli anni '70, quando ancora non ero nato.Considerando che questo è lo scritto d'esordio dell'autore, completato prima dei 35 anni, risulta impressionante.Credo che "Americana" possa essere definito come un capolavoro, purtroppo però questa parola è stata usata ed abusata a lungo, quindi ha perso di significato, tuttavia questo rimane.

El libro tiene notas a mano en boli en todas las páginas. Aunque es de segunda mano, no debería venderse en esas condiciones.

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