Bloomsbury Don DeLillo: Contemporary Critical Perspectives

Don DeLillo is widely regarded as one of the most significant, and prescient, writers of our time. Since the 1960s, DeLillos fiction has been at the cutting edge of thought on American identity, globalization, technology, environmental destruction, and terrorism, always with a distinctively macabre and humorous eye. Don DeLillo: Contemporary Critical Perspectives brings together leading scholars of the contemporary American novel to guide readers through DeLillos oeuvre, from his early short stories through to 2016s Zero K, including his theatrical work. As well as critically exploring DeLillos engagement with key contemporary themes, the book also includes a new interview with the author, annotated guides to further reading, and a chronology of his life and work. Review Lewin (Univ. of Sussex, UK) and Ward (Univ. of East Anglia, UK) include nine essays and a closing interview with DeLillo in this book, which joins a growing literature on DeLillo ... The larger intent of all the essays is to suggest that the end is near, that parameters set up do not allow the individual to go beyond the opiate of mass consumerism, that this is the limit. In the closing interview, DeLillo poses the question of whether advanced technology will improve human consciousness or destroy it. Notes follow individual essays; the bibliography is extensive. Summing Up: Recommended.CHOICE About the Author Katherine Da Cunha Lewin teaches English Literature and American Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. Kiron Ward is a Postdoctoral Lecturing Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia, UK.