This summer, I wrote a review of DeLillo's The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories for Goodreads. Given the nature of the site, the purpose of the review is not so much to analyze the work, but rather to get readers who are unfamiliar with DeLillo to be interested in him.
Here's the link: Review of The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories
I've also reproduced the review below.
Enjoy!
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THE PERFECT INTRODUCTION TO DON DeLILLO
Don DeLillo is currently my favorite writer, and I've been on a quest to read all of his works over the past few months. Whenever anyone asks me about DeLillo and to recommend a book by him, my response has usually been something like this:
"I think he's an amazing writer, but I also recognize that he's certainly not for everyone. My suggestion is to read White Noise, since it's relevant, easy to find, and highly accessible, and then decide for yourself."
After having completed The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories, however, I revoke this past statement of mine. It's not that White Noise is a bad book with which to expose yourself to DeLillo; it is a phenomenal piece of fiction, and if you choose to read it first (as I did), my bet is that you won't regret it.
But, as a novel alone, White Noise (1985) perhaps paints an unfair portrait of DeLillo's writing career, which has spanned more than fifty years (1960-present). In other words, if you read this particular novel first, you may -- for better or for worse -- come to expect this kind of writing in all of DeLillo's works, and consequently you may find yourself a bit disappointed when you get around to his post-Underworld works (The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, Love-Lies-Bleeding, etc.).
The Angel Esmeralda, on the other hand, manages to cover more ground than White Noise in terms of DeLillo's career, seeing as the nine stories that comprise it were published between 1979-2011. But it is not for this reason alone that I believe The Angel Esmeralda represent the perfect introduction to this hilarious, haunting, and rather enigmatic American author, the litmus test for deciding whether or not to get involved with DeLillo.
Without spoiling the stories themselves, I will at least say that here readers will find many of the qualities and themes that make DeLillo the celebrated author that he is. To name just a few: his masterful discussion of airports; his passion for describing New York City; his belief that "the future belongs to crowds"; the influence of mass media; the impending financial collapse (as he predicted in his 2003 novel Cosmopolis); the way in which people almost systematically impose stories and backgrounds on other people in order to make sense of them; his interest in art; his insightful and ironic humor; and, finally, not only his admirable command of language, but his interest in language itself.
Although it is difficult to do so, I will pick a single passage from The Angel Esmeralda to quote, from "Midnight in Dostoevsky" (2010):
If we isolate the stray thought, the passing thought, the thought whose origin is unfathomable, then we begin to understand that we are routinely deranged, everyday crazy.
Anyway, if you are one of those readers who's teetering on whether or not to pick up a book by Don DeLillo, then The Angel Esmeralda is where to begin -- and it may just push you over the edge.
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