Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable masterpiece
Review: The best, most ambitious, most achieved novel in a long time. What a writer's book. Every page has a sentence that you want to write down in a notebook somewhere. The opening Polo Grounds section is just so good, and the final evocation of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, 1951, is so beautiful. Yeah it's long, but worth it. Don't miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Writing at its best.
Review: Because of its size everyone wants to put Underworld in the Pynchon/Gaddis class.Length is about all that it shares with that genre,and if you're curious there is no reason to be intimidated..There is some moving back and forth between stories in time-but this is very easy to follow.The first chapter set in the Polo Grounds is terrific and the book takes off from there.A ton of ground is covered-and its all interesting.Plot is somewhat secondary to themes-but not in a pretentious or self-indulgent style.In the past that always turned me away from DeLillo,but not here.He gets to the point quickly,and then expands his thoughts without showing off. My only crticisms: the last section(before the epilogue)drags a little.Too many new characters are introduced that don't really contribute to the story or the spirit of the book.Also,in the epilogue the references to cyberspace seem to be forced. These are,however, minor flaws in the best novel in years, second only to Alien Rapture by Stieger. Read them soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Crap Galore!
Review: Yes yes all one has to do nowadays to make "necessary" reading and "Ulysses-like vision" is to churn out a crappy non-linear book rife with "symbols" and insights into history (as stupid and pompous as they may be).. Christ! Give me a break! This book was unadulterated CRAP. The pretentious wannabe-"avant-garde" style, the metaphors, the frames, the narratological structures that are abundantly overdone made ipecac an essential supplement. You, poor reader, might buy this book, and read it, on a cold winter's night, and you being one of those types that have to finishe a book once you start one, are in for hell. That is all I can tell you. As for Mr DeLillo - Get yourself an education...if you want examples of GOOD "arsty" writers read Calvino, Borges, Perec... also : Pl stop writing asap!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the most beautiful book I have ever read
Review: From the opening line to the last word, this is a book filled with the beauty of language, the tragedy of everyday life. It's stunning: it has cadences that will take your breath away -- exclamations and ideas that will render you silent . I love this book beyond all reason, it will move you.
Rating:
Summary: "We're all going to die!"
Review: DeLillo weaves images from the last 50 or so years, bringing together the large and the small--from atomic weapons to baseballs to heroin to condoms. The meaning of all of the connections is lost on me, but I have no doubt that hidden amongst the waste is a comment on our need to create meaning, find order, and establish control in a world that might end at any moment. Big themes here, but DeLillo leaves it up to us to ask the questions and find our own answers. Quality book, quality writer, but don't expect any easy conslusions. It'll stay with you long after you close the back cover.
Rating:
Summary: A materpiece! This will be read for a long time to come.
Review: DeLillo's newest work is challenging, yet ultimately rewarding. At over 800 pages, you need to make a commitment to the text, but if you do, you won't be let down. DeLillo brilliantly weaves a non-narrative, linking various storylines and characters (both historical and literary) in a tapestry that effectively probes the experience and meaning of the Cold War on American culture. This is one of the first great novels to come to terms with the post-war era in retrospect. The initial sequence at the 1951 baseball playoffs in NY City is nothing short of amazing; a literary feat. Stay with this one. It is complex and requires thought. I read it five months ago and am continuing to find insights and meaning hidden at various levels. It should be studied and discussed in literature as well as history courses. Similar in some respects to Philip Roth's "American Pastoral," it was a shame that this was passed over for the major literary awards last year.
Rating:
Summary: Syrup of Ipecac is Cheaper
Review: DeLillo is a shallow genius. He often makes witty observations and quips and attempts to assemble these (in Underworld using the pathetic motif of baseball as his "glue") into a coherent novel. He fails, as he did in White Noise and Libra. Unfortunately DeLillo, the unabashed postmodernist, substitutes superficiality in character, plot, and trivializes the novel as an artform while garnering reviews from hungry critics desperate for anything palatable. For them any food tastes good (look at Grisham, Clancy, King etc, gawdawful) as they are very hungry. This made me vomit. Go check out some ipecac if you want to induce vomiting, it's much cheaper.
Rating: 
Summary: Enough baseball already
Review: Why not just have a section for all those talented authors that spoil otherwise good writing with leaden baseball metaphors (Hello George Will and Stephan J Gould!). Reading this made me I feel like I ought to be wearing a pocket protector and waiting on hold to for some pitiful AM sports radio callin show.
Rating:
Summary: Cultural Experience
Review: After reading Underworld, I felt as if I had just participated in a major cultural experience-the culmination of the sacred and profane in post-W.W.II life. What makes this book a great book is, unlike Ulysses in which more people say they read it than actually do (I did), its accessiblity. The landscape it portyrays is available and recognizable to anyone with a college reading level (in my opinon). The simple fact that Delillo does this without and "tricks" shows what a fantastic writer he is. I am a great fan of Libra, and I feel that in many ways Delillo brings together a lot of the magnitude and lyrical qualities of Libra with the wackiness/irony thats in White Noise. I'm just wondering what he could possibly come up with next? Anyway, for those who want the book to be "about" something, here's what I have to offer: the novel is about impermenance.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Doorstop
Review: I gave it a chance. I really did. I read the first 200 pages with great care, being generous with my commitment to the author and what I presumed to be a slow-starting book that would eventually gather steam and even excitement as all the loose ends came together in a gripping, even mesmerizing finish. But no. I was let down, big-time. I finished the book speed-reading, caring little about either the characters or the author's opaque purpose.
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