Rating: 
Summary: Shallow
Review: Delillo is a talented wordsmith. But he has nothing to say. For the "underworld" of America, he remains comfortably in the realm of baseball and lenny bruce. So many scenes try very hard for depth -- but not from an honest feel of the world. Rather, they proceed as though airy structuralist constructs will produce truth out of theory. This is a book written for critics, meant to be understood to death. Which, I think, is very different from previous Delillo works. But it fails. Because whey you cut back and forth between subway graffiti and elite "artist" hobnobbing in the way Delillo does -- which is to say, without anything that we don't already expect -- whatever point about "above/below" that he tries to make becomes downright trite.
Rating: 
Summary: An American Classic
Review: From the opening at The Polo Grounds with its imaginary pairing of J.Edgar Hoover, Sinatra, and Gleason to the riffs of Lenny Bruce with a backdrop of the nuclear age, Don Delillo has created a dense but accessible look at America. A group of fascinating people populate this novel and their lives become the backdrop for a much larger spectacle, how "everything is connected in the end."
Rating: 
Summary: Is it that good or bad?
Review: Underworld is avery long novel which can be easy to put down becasue of the lack of real tension around what little conventional plot there is. However, it does to some extent work as a fairly readable mediation on america since the early 1950s and there are some passages which are impressive. Other pieces are hard going and it is not always easy to knit together the threads, but it does remain a strangely resonant and seductive novel which repays the patience it sometimes requires
Rating:
Summary: his best work
Review: Underworld is the greatest novel of american culture since E.L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel.
Rating:
Summary: Half-way There, But Still Going Strong ...
Review: I hope it doesn't seem too absurd to review a book I've only half-read, but my feelings for this novel are so mixed, I needed to know the views of those who had got to the end. It appears that people either love or hate this book, (although everyone seems to like the opening chapter.) I can't say it's the best American novel I've ever read - but I have certainly never read anything like it. Like its characters, it yearns - to be whole, to be liked, to succeed and so far I think it is on the right track. If it ever finds a plot, I'll get to the end a little quicker, but if it doesn't, I think I'm happy to follow wherever it takes me. Curious.
Rating: 
Summary: Tuckers out in the end
Review: This book starts out brillantly with an amazing first chapter about a single baseball game. The quickly changing scenes (ballgame to J.Edgar Hoover in stands to announcer to kid in the stands) captured the spirit of America of the time. Then the next few chapters show some promise that the characters will be intriguing and watching them develop will be fun. Alas, by the time I was 300 pages through the book I was already tiring of it. Not wanting to give up after having committed the hours to read the first 300 pages, I trudged to the end. What a tiresome/disappointing end it was. The last chapter was simply silly. I felt Delillo was trying too hard to make a profound point of which he just wasn't capable. Would I recommend this book to friend? Maybe, especially if (s)he likes baseball (I love the game). Will I read another Delillo novel? Probably- though it will have to be short (White Noise?).
Rating:
Summary: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS BOOK, YOU WATCH TOO MUCH T.V.
Review: The majority of this book is about a time that I have never seen, events that I have only read about in history books, and prominent characters in American society who passed on before I was even aware of them. You would think this book really wouldn't get to me at all, but it did. The reason is its style. Don Delillo portrays the events concerning (and triggered by) the Cold War in a voice seldom seen in most American fiction. I was initially turned off by the dialogue --it seemed too fragmentary and spontaneous-- until I realized that PEOPLE ACTUALLY TALK THAT WAY! Nothing in this book was in the least bit dull, and that seems incredible, coming from a twenty-one year-old who grew up on television and the movies. This book made me change the way I thought about fiction, about art, about society, and about history. That is a great accomplishment. I used to be a fan of "popular" fiction, but Delillo has converted me to a whole new realm of literature that I wish everyone knew about. If you found this book boring, or you didn't understand much of it, or you were turned off by its rococo style --you need to 1) peel yourself from the couch and turn off your T.V., 2) avoid your local megaplex, and 3) throw away your Grishams, Crichtons, and Koontz's (you can keep your Kings, I guess). Oh, and put this book in your shopping cart.
Rating:
Summary: If only it had been edited more ...
Review: Underworld is brilliant and beautiful -- in parts. It's worth buying just for the wonderful first chapter, a multifaceted account of a 1951 ball game and its spectators. Here, DeLillo is a great poet and storyteller.
But as I read on, I found myself wishing that a ruthless editor had hacked out about 50% of the book. Many parts are ... well ... dull. Repetitive ruminations by mediocre characters. For me, the scenes in early 50s New York were consistently the most vivid and engaging (and presumably these are closest to DeLillo's own experience). The later scenes often seem empty, washed out, stereotyped. Has American life really become so anonymous and dead since 1951? Is that DeLillo's message? If so, I don't buy it.
Another complaint: DeLillo is given to long-winded observations on topics like the Cold War and the metaphysical status of garbage. Honestly, these Big Ideas are not very original, and they violate that old chestnut of solid advice to fiction writers: show it, don't tell it. What I like in this book are the small ideas: the little nuances of observation, the exquisitely chosen words that reveal a gesture or a moment.
A final whine: the two main characters, Nick Shay and Klara Sax, just don't turn me on. I find them dull. And I wish more had "happened" in this book (yes, I still like narrative and plot).
One way to read this novel in an edited version would be to read the first chapter ("The Triumph of Death") and then all the "Manx Martin" chapters. That creates a nice continuous narrative which is beautifully written, a very fine novella in itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After a wonderful start, this book became an amazingly boriing exercise about half way through. I would not argue Dellilo's brilliance as a writer, however, some deeper sense of humanity seems to be missing in his characters. Also, there is a pretentious arrogance that comes across in his writing. He tries too hard to show off his ability to be a brillian descriptive writer. If he would of done a better job of getting us inside the heads of his characters instead of just describing them in a "I can see through everyone, aren't I brilliant," sort of way, this book may have worked. Why did this book get so much hype?
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking!
Review: Reading this book is like listening to brilliant and accomplished jazz musicians trading fours, playing about America.
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