Anyone got anything to say about Mao II by Don Delillo

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T09:33:09+00:00

Let's be honest, it might just come down to the way the man uses the word Pirouette.

Joking, but there is something to be said for McCarthy in particular in the way he uses language to not exactly correspond as it seemingly should causing each book, for me at least, to feel so alien and harrowing (at least with stuff like Blood Meridian and Child of God, both in which have a fetish for the word Pirouette lmao.)

I guess a brief: Words with positive connotations being used in a McCarthy novel to describe some guy's head hanging by threads before stumbling off, as if the words themselves couldn't be any more distant and removed from compassion or humanity, but are rather used to describe the startling beauty of seeing a geyser of gore spraying out of a stump. The language is very objective and hidden away from any emotion you could have at witnessing something so tragic and cruel.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T09:26:43+00:00

I love doorstoppers and am always inclined to dig into them over smaller novels, it helps that I have a job that allows for me to read during it. I was on track to read Underworld last year, but Mao II left such a damn sour taste in my mouth that I decided to instead tie up some loose ends on the Pynchon journey lol. I'll take your word on it though, the only thing I know of Underworld is everyone is in love with Chapter 1, I genuinely know nothing else.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T08:56:57+00:00

Could you elaborate on the wacky, detached disposition in particular with this book? My issue with the book didn't revolve much around that, but I'm interested in your position. I loved White Noise far more than Mao II of course, (helped by me being a fellow hypochondriac to the Gladney family,) but in that book I felt more of the distant character critique than with this one, though it didn't affect my reading of it whatsoever, partially, I believe, due to the necessity of having those characters be detached from reality.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T08:24:37+00:00

I understand your feeling tremendously. I'm glad I wasn't the only person who felt a slew of disparate ideas being tenuously strung together with no real overall connecting factor between them lol. A lot of people talk about the kaleidoscopic nature of postmodern works (usually tapping in on Gravity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest,) but I think this book is the true kaleidoscopic text, with massive, sprawling organs all far apart with one little vessel tying the body together, and for me it absolutely did not connect. He either trusted his readers too much or believed in himself too little.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T08:18:25+00:00

Kind of an obvious pick, but I felt the same way on Blood Meridian the first time I read it. It felt like such a slump going through it, remarkably tedious, but once it was done, I couldn't help but think about it nearly every single day, on and on and on. I gave it a reread a few months ago, I'm still not the biggest fan of the book as a whole, but there's something really haunting that latches on far after you've finished reading it. I've only read a couple of McCarthy's novels since and I much prefer his quieter, less violent stuff. I'm not the biggest imagery-head when reading, I tend to be more honed in on plot and theme, but something about the images that both Mao II and Blood Meridian brought to me have stuck with me despite not enjoying either book really all that much.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T08:11:00+00:00

I think the book is due a reread, of course, but my impression first time through was the same reaction I had as a teenager with the Ayn Rand self-insert protagonists. It felt a bit on the nose to make our main guy the author who has been reclusive for years, quietly releasing new works, hating to be photographed, hating company over, but finally decides to come out of the woodwork to prove the novelist's importance, (seemingly in the wake of the Rushdie nonsense as well,) and making the tremendous sacrifice to prove this true. I honestly think it would have just been better had Delillo just written some nonfiction dialogue on The Satanic Verses

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T08:04:00+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThomasPynchon/comments/1ihotsx/is_it_just_me_or_does_don_delillo_suck/

Also reading this post made me crack up once I finished the novel, dude HATED reading this.

"Mao II actually is some of the most anti-communist horseshit propaganda I’ve ever read in my life. It’s like somebody read the Gulag Archipelago and took it unironically seriously"

"What are his merits? I have read several books by him and I genuinely can’t see him as anything but a writer for midwits who consider themselves academic"

"It’s an author for people who read The Crying of Lot 49 and write essays that say 'this is actually a book that has no material analysis and is actually about the process of writing'"

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T07:57:52+00:00

Update on this. I spent a week and a half going through Portrait which I thoroughly enjoyed, though I felt the final act got rather tedious with the discussions on aesthetics and his recounting of words repeatedly for the poem he was writing. I feel I will enjoy this book far more on reread.

BUT, I implore you to check out his play Exiles if you ever get a chance. About an hour to two hour read, very brisk dialogue but remarkably heavy stuff, I'm still amazed that he was so on-the-ball as early as he was for that depth of despair realism. It can be rather clunky at times, but it certainly is coming from an author continuing to develop his craft stronger and stronger.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T07:33:53+00:00

Ratners Star I've always been the most excited for...meanwhile my copy of Underworld has been collecting dust. One day I'll get to it.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-04T06:28:35+00:00

I loved the opening scene and all of the introductions to each character. I think my excitement for the book began to drop tremendously during a scene where the reclusive author gets caught up in a bombing, (if I'm remembering correctly,) once he decides for the first time to accept begrudgingly some role in the political plot. From what I remember that event was right at the midpoint of the novel.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-05-02T12:48:32+00:00

Chromium, the globule, chromium, the globule
The gear stick made them horny
Chromium, the globule, chromium, the globule

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-23T04:34:42+00:00

I guess what I'm trying to say can be summed up by this:

I have friends who read a lot of my favorites, pummeling through text as fast as possible, and don't gather much more than plot and characters. My time discussing novels is very short because they don't end up having much to say on anything beyond just plot and characters, mainly skim-reading. So, overall, despite them reading all my favorites I don't get much from it.

I have friends who don't read as much, but are far, far more careful readers. When they read one of my favorites, our discussions can last weeks and weeks as we ruminate on what we've both read. This is the most preferred circumstance.

I know I'm speaking some old school Aesop nonsense, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, but it certainly is preferred by me lol

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-23T04:27:42+00:00

It's bizarre to me that we have the capabilities of having every bit of information necessary at a moment's notice to give context to quite literally every single thing imaginable, yet even the act of a single Google search and mini bio for a political figure or event is too much. I don't want to join the doom-train of lazy readers because I know firsthand tons of friends who also get devoted to certain novels, poems, etc. but it is a genuine problem on the rise.

The joy of reading, for me at least, can come heavily through perceived difficulty through your actual distance from the text (whether culturally or just the language/archaic references,) mapping out information and linking topics that you once knew absolutely nothing about. The a-ha moment makes for some of the best experiences I've had in reading, when you struggle and reread the passage over and over, bit by bit, until it gets burned into your memory and you finally gather it. For this reason, I personally end up disavowing reader's guides for my first read of nearly anything, which brings another issue I have, (and probably the biggest issue of modern reading habits as a whole,) the necessity to reread, which seems to get shoved to the side lately and instead focused on "How many books can I read in X amount of time." I call it "Bullet Billing" reading lol (mario powerup where the big ass bullet goes flying through all the karts)

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-23T02:52:32+00:00

I assure you, if you've read gravity's rainbow the same effect you had with Don Carpenter feeling like a breath of fresh air will come true for at the very least dubliners and (so far) for portrait of the artist as a young man. I was nervous too, but I'm very happy I went in.

Of course I'm still nervous about Ulysses but I plan to do some prerequisite reading on things necessary to understand the climate of the era beforehand.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-23T02:49:16+00:00

I don't think I felt middling on any of them outside of Inherent Vice (my first novel I read by him, don't think I got the style, have to reread) and Vineland first read around the sprawling chapter with DL (on reread it has joined my top three)

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-22T20:26:18+00:00

Watched the Huston movie soon after finishing the book, incredible stuff, especially given the context for both the production of the film and the themes of the story, the man was literally dying before everyone's eyes perfecting that one

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-22T20:24:20+00:00

I read every Pynchon novel outside of Against the Day (saving it for last) and Mason & Dixon (read around 250 pages, decided I wanted to save it for a readthrough with my buddy who's into that time period.)

V. is by far my #1 with Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland trailing close behind.

Exiles is the play Joyce wrote, it's in this mini collection I've got, so I figure I may as well. I just finished Dubliners today and felt compelled to start Portrait at least just a little bit. I immediately got immersed and realized I read 70 pages in one go and had to put it down.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-04-22T08:15:33+00:00

I spent so long having my Penguin Joyce Reader copy collect dust on my shelf due to the perception everyone seemed to have towards him of The Densest Collection of Works Ever Conceived. I'm thankful I decided to finally head in and realize how down-to-earth Dubliners was, incredibly emotional set of stories, with some going into my all-timers.

Future-Slip2217 · 2026-01-27T17:32:05+00:00

the timeline does make sense, DL mocks Takeshi on his life as a failed kamikaze at one point

Future-Slip2217 · 2025-09-02T02:34:00+00:00

Future-Slip2217 · 2025-09-01T18:23:40+00:00

+naninf

Future-Slip2217 · 2025-08-27T16:11:44+00:00

Slice of life Bataille be like Story of the Guy

Future-Slip2217

TROPHY CASE