Cosmopolis - Softcover

Don DeLillo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330413007 ISBN 13: 9780330413008

Publisher: Picador, 2004

Synopsis

The last day of the life of Eric Packer, a multi-billionaire who owns amongst others a sixty four room apartment and who has recently married one of the richest women in America. He drives around New York at a snail's pace as the city is at a standstill because the President is in town and there is a funeral of a rapper proceeding across town. On top of this is the incipient threat of riots breaking out as anti-globalisation groups get more and more heated.Packer's bodyguards are worried that he is a target and he becomes one -- but not from the rioters, from an ex-employee who wants to make his life worth something.A mesmeric tour de force of character, stylistic brilliance, intelligence and wit.

About this title

Review

Cosmopolis is Don DeLillo's 13th novel. His reputation as one of the most provocative and innovative of American writers is assured, thanks to such books as Underworld and Americana, but this new outing is as likely to challenge the author's legion of admirers as much as it will exhilarate them--and there's nothing wrong with that.

DeLillo's protagonist this time is a well-heeled American, Eric Packer, who sets out one eventful day for a haircut. Gazing through the windows of his white limousine （and availing himself of its state-of-the-art technology）, this self-made millionaire takes in the spectacle of financiers being murdered, the funeral of a rapper and some violent anti-globalisation protests. As we come to know DeLillo's anti-hero, we realise that Eric Packer is by no means the most ingratiating of individuals. Cheating on his new wife, he specialises in using people in a cynical and exploitative way. And as this self-serving captain of industry takes an ever-more dangerous journey through a bizarrely rendered New York, it's inevitable that comparisons with Tom Wolfe's classic Bonfire of the Vanities will spring to mind. Resemblances of plot aside, however, the book is a very different animal. Wolfe's narrative had the epic spread of a latter-day War and Peace, whereas DeLillo sharpens and condenses his prose in Cosmopolis to produce an altogether more concise novel.

There are two ways to approach Cosmopolis: as a rudely pointed dissection of the American Dream, or as a surreal, symbolic and disturbing road trip. This is not a comforting book, but a bracing and caustic one. --Barry Forshaw

Review

"The San Diego Union-Tribune"

"Cosmopolis..."is not just something new, and not just about what is new. It is about newness itself: the high-pressure extrusion of the future into the razor-thin now-moment we inhabit...."Cosmopolis" is a concise "Ulysses" for the new century.

"GQ" (UK)

"Cosmopolis" is written with the sort of intensity you simply don't get elsewhere.

"Chicago Sun-Times"

"Cosmopolis" is nothing if not challenging, thought-provoking, and utterly different.

"San Francisco Chronicle"

A brilliant new novel....Don Delillo continues to think about the modern world in language and images as quizzically beautiful as any writer.

GQ (UK) Cosmopolis is written with the sort of intensity you simply don't get elsewhere.

Chicago Sun-Times Cosmopolis is nothing if not challenging, thought-provoking, and utterly different.

San Francisco Chronicle A brilliant new novel....Don Delillo continues to think about the modern world in language and images as quizzically beautiful as any writer.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Cosmopolis... is not just something new, and not just about what is new. It is about newness itself: the high-pressure extrusion of the future into the razor-thin now-moment we inhabit.... Cosmopolis is a concise Ulysses for the new century.

"GQ" (UK) "Cosmopolis" is written with the sort of intensity you simply don't get elsewhere.

"The San Diego Union-Tribune""Cosmopolis..."is not just something new, and not just about what is new. It is about newness itself: the high-pressure extrusion of the future into the razor-thin now-moment we inhabit...."Cosmopolis" is a concise "Ulysses" for the new century.

"Chicago Sun-Times""Cosmopolis" is nothing if not challenging, thought-provoking, and utterly different.

"San Francisco Chronicle" A brilliant new novel....Don Delillo continues to think about the modern world in language and images as quizzically beautiful as any writer.

""Cosmopolis" is a concise "Ulysses" for the new century."--"The San Diego Union-Tribune"

"Written with the sort of intensity you simply don't get elsewhere."--"GQ "(UK)

"Thought-provoking and utterly different."--"Chicago Sun-Times"

"A brilliant novel.... Don DeLillo continues to think about the modern world in language and images as quizzically beautiful as any writer.""--San Francisco Chronicle"

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0330413007
• ISBN 13: 9780330413008
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 209