Rating: 
Summary: masterpiece
Review: I'm amazed and almost shocked about the reviews of some of my fellow readers of which many even didn't finish the book! Actually I've read the book three times. I couldn't stop reading it. I kept it at my bedside because I couln't say goodbye to it. This book is a masterpiece. The style of Don DeLillo is fantastic. I do read an amazing lot of literature but this is one is something else. The Nobel prize for DeLillo!
Rating:
Summary: Delillo's Masterpiece,best book of 1997!
Review: This book draws you in with the quality and style of writing which all fans of Delillo can appreciate. The sections where he talks about J Edgar Hoover,the baseball,the stand-up comedian and the guys in the fallout shelter are unforgettable! Utterly brilliant writing!
Rating: 
Summary: The Flop Heard Round the World
Review: I love baseball, as well as good and adventuresome writing, and was looking forward to this novel. The initial section at the 1951 playoff game was the best part of the book (but still pretty relentless), and it went downhill from there. I also love long and intricate novels in which I can get lost, but I found this one incredibly tedious. It was impossible to maintain a stake in the characters or in the jumpy plot, which seemed to be more of an exercise in showing off than anything else. It was impossible to draw the much-touted universal insights from this mess, though I'm of about the right age and experience to do so.I didn't finish the book, and it was a wonderfully liberating feeling to bail out. Maybe it's just because I'm a Dodger fan. . . But, hey, I wouldn't wish this one on George Steinbrenner, or even on the late Billy Martin.
Rating:
Summary: One of the classics of the century
Review: Underworld is without doubt one of the greatest books of the century. It's a grand tour of American life during the Cold War, and ends with the uncertainty of the new world. To say that the size of this puts readers off is stupid: it has to be this big to encompass everything. There is a fantastic plot and a thoroughly real set of characters, and the dialogue and narration are stunningly beautiful. The narrative falls back in time slowly, and pieces of the plot are gradually put together. This may be demanding for the reader, but the beauty of it far outweighs any worries about tiredness. This book unravels the American past in a human way, looking at how the events of the American century - Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, detente, Reaganomics - have affected individual lives. It leaves us poised at the end of the century with a myriad of paradoxes, ironies and uncertainties. Because of its length and scope, Underworld is the sort of book you can return to and study and still find new things. It brilliantly summarises the lives of Westerners in the late twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: Read it again and it's still great.
Review: Don DeLillo's "Underworld" is an amazing book. Yes, the plot drags at times, but in the end, DeLillo rolls everything into a ball of meaning. The book, I think, is about the elusive sense of repose we are all seeking, and DeLillo lays out his story beautifully. The book is over 700 pages long, but practically every word packs meaning. There is nary a single superfluous word in this novel, and in fact, he ends the novel with a single, forceful word: peace. "Underworld" ranks up there with "Infinite Jest," "Huckleberry Finn" and Angela Carter's "The Magic Toyshop" as one of my favorite novels. Give it a try. You'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Delilio Tried Too Hard
Review: When I logged on to initially do this review, I was ready to call it the worst book I have ever read. Yet, that had already been done. However, I also saw some reviews calling it an "American Classic". So, what's the deal with this book? Simply, Delilio tried too hard. There are gems of brilliance in this book, but they get lost in the complicated prose and virtually non-existent plot. For example: Although I was born several years after the Cuban Missle Crisis, "Underworld" effectively conveyed to me the fever pitch of the nation: As Lenny Bruce so clearly states with "We're all gonna die!" In this respect, Underworld is as effective in demonstrating the insanity of the Cold War as Kubrik's "Dr. Strangelove", a true American classic. As a teacher of history, I am considering using EXCERPTS of this book to help my students understand how close we actually came to destroying ourselves. With gems like this, I can see how the book could be called brilliant. Unfortunately, these gems simply get lost. So, if you're looking for a book to give you an effective picture of times gone by, I would not recommend this book, because you probaly will not be able to find what you are looking for...unless Delilo releases an abridged version! Overall: Not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: I'm flabbergasted...
Review: ...as to why seemingly everyone claims that Delillo is a master of prose. I started this book really expecting and hoping to like it. After 100 pages, I did something I had never done before-- abandoned ship! I put it down and haven't looked back, something I thought would be hard but in this case was disconcertingly easy... My problem with this book (I've never read Delillo before) was not only the uninteresting assembly of scenes and characters, but the over-worked almost ridiculous prose. The scene at the Dodger's game with Frank Sinatra etc. in the audience had great potential, and there were a few spectacular moments, but sentence after sentence of sophmoric over-achieving prose just turned me off. I was particularly the dialogue of the black boy (who catches the ball) and his family-- horribly stereotypic and unrealistic, almost offensive. I couldn't stand it. Don't mistake me for someone who gives up easily-- Ulysses is my favorite book and I'm almost finished with the *fantastic* Infinite Jest. Incidentally, David Foster Wallace once mentioned in an interview that he thinks Don Delillo's prose is some of the best around. I'm flabbergasted....
Rating: 
Summary: A very long book about garbage
Review: I have read a number of Don Delillo's books, primarily because people keep telling me he is a great writer and I feel an obligation occasionally to read something 'great'. However, while enjoying parts of his other novels, especially Libra, they at least had the advantage of being relatively short. The pain was not prolonged. This book is huge. I kept expecting to figure out what it was about, but after 400 pages I became reconciled to an ever growing thought - this was just a very long book about garbage. Seriously, it is a book about garbage - landfills and other aspects of trash generating America. One can make much of this, but I didn't feel that Delillo really took advantage of the thematic possibilites. As is true of many contemporary 'serious' writers, he seems to be careful never to be too clear, as if ambiguity were a literary value to always strive for. The characters, plot and ultimate point of this ponderous book are all only dimly realized. Delillo has the talent to craft wonderful passages, but they exist in isolation and don't flow together to make a satisfying book.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait
Review: Actually that comment won't apply to anyone but me. You see, when I was a bit of a younger man and this book came out, I immediately went out and bought it, having never really read Delillo but just having a feeling that THIS was a book to read, I had a recently come off the natural literary high that only greats like Pynchon and Gaddis can give you and I had an idea that this book could attempt those heights. So I went and got it and then . . . other matters occupied me, other books called for my attention, and that large eight hundred page monster just sat there patiently, waiting for me. And then the day came, about a month ago, when I couldn't wait any longer and I must say I've rarely torn through a book so quickly in my life, I'd sit there and honestly debate studying for my upcoming barrages of test or "just reading one more chapter". The opening prologue is utterly brilliant in the juxtaposition of the boy who sneaks in the stadium and the famous men throwing up on each other and the pace and tone never slacken. Unlike Pynchon, Delillo is far more emotional and his characters are people and not just devices to further the plot. The prose glistens and you'll find yourself reading over a particularly choice paragraph to embed some marvelous phrasing in your head and each page seems to have another to add to the collection. And the detail, ah, the details! He casts his eye over almost every aspect of US life during the fifty years of the Cold War and you're there, seeing it through the lives of everyone from the top down, from the people who sit on top of the garbage heaps to the ones who sift through it at the base. With all the hype and praise this book got, I didn't think it could at all surpass my expectations but it did, it ranks as my choice for one of the best books of the decade and simply demands your attention. Granted, it's a large difficult book, eight hundred pages remember and requires a good chunk of your time and focus, but careful reading rewards endlessly, his ear for dialogue has never been better and you'll feel like he's been listening to the people talking outside your house. So it's not for everyone but that doesn't mean you should leave it alone. If you see it snap it up, read it, and pass it on to all your friends. This book proves to me that literature in the tradition of the aforementioned Pynchon and Gaddis and even the older heroes Joyce and Faulkner is alive and kicking in the hands of authors like Delillo.
Rating:
Summary: magical history tour
Review: An amazing novel--an ambitious, highly literary capstone on our troubled American century. DeLillo is a sculptor of language; he seems to choose his words based on the shapes of their letters--this gives his writing an aesthetic quality, a jazziness, a depth that points to hidden mysteries that connect us in a humane, compassionate manner. The closing benediction sequence is one of the most moving pieces of writing I've encountered.
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