Synopses & Reviews
Set against the backdrop of a lush and exotic Greece, The Names is considered the book which began to drive sharply upward the size of his readership (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Among the cast of DeLillo's bizarre yet fully realized characters in The Names are Kathryn, the narrator's estranged wife; their son, the six-year-old novelist; Owen, the scientist; and the neurotic narrator obsessed with his own neuroses. A thriller, a mystery, and still a moving examination of family, loss, and the amorphous and magical potential of language itself, The Names stands with any of DeLillo's more recent and highly acclaimed works.
The Names not only accurately reflects a portion of our contemporary world but, more importantly, creates an original world of its own.--Chicago Sun-Times
DeLillo sifts experience through simultaneous grids of science and poetry, analysis and clear sight, to make a high-wire prose that is voluptuously stark.--Village Voice Literary Supplement
DeLillo verbally examines every state of consciousness from eroticism to tourism, from the idea of America as conceived by the rest of the world to the idea of the rest of the world as conceived by America, from mysticism to fanaticism.--New York Times
Review
"The Names not only accurately reflects a portion of our contemporary world but, more importantly, creates an original world of its own." Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"DeLillo sifts experience through simultaneous grids of science and poetry, analysis and clear sight, to make a high-wire prose that is voluptuously stark." Village Voice Literary Supplement
Review
"DeLillo verbally examines every state of consciousness from eroticism to tourism, from the idea of America as conceived by the rest of the world to the idea of the rest of the world as conceived by America, from mysticism to fanaticism." New York Times
Review
"Brilliant...a powerful, haunting book." New York Times Book Review
Review
"The Names is an accomplished and intelligent novel, the work of a writer of clear if chilly brilliance, but it takes on too many themes and wanders in too many directions to find a coherent shape." Washington Post
Review
"Simultaneously a suspenseful murder mystery, a meditation on family and loss, and a poetic exploration of language itself, The Names is an incredible book that will remind you of the range of possibilities the novel can offer." Jill Owens, Powells.com (click here to read the entire Powells.com review)
Synopsis
Set against the backdrop of a lush and exotic Greece, The Names is considered the book which began to drive "sharply upward the size of his readership" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Among the cast of DeLillo's bizarre yet fully realized characters in The Names are Kathryn, the narrator's estranged wife; their son, the six-year-old novelist; Owen, the scientist; and the neurotic narrator obsessed with his own neuroses. A thriller, a mystery, and still a moving examination of family, loss, and the amorphous and magical potential of language itself, The Names stands with any of DeLillo's more recent and highly acclaimed works.
About the Author
Don DeLillo is the author of eleven novels, including White Noise, Libra, and Mao II, and has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.