Rating: 
Summary: Starts well, ends crazily
Review: I bought this book while on vacation in Italy - it was the only novel in English by a literary type author in the bookstore. I knew De Lillo was supposed to be a great author and so I bought it. Also, I am interested in reading about financial figures like George Soros or Warren Buffet.
The book reminds me of the movie Apocalypse Now which starts wonderfully with great cinematography and eventually descends into craziness and nonsense IMHO. This book starts well with a high concept and great writing style and then gradually descends into implausibility, nonsense etc. The financial transactions didn't seem very plausible to me and the motivation didn't make sense any more and the events at the end of the day involved far too much coincidence to be plausible.
Unless of course the latter parts of the day are all meant to be some psychotic episode.
Rating: 
Summary: Phony. Pretentious. Inane. Blase. Uninspired.
Review: Delillo seems to think his "observations" are novel and deep. In truth, Delillo's "observations" in this little novella are phony, pretentious, inane, immature, misguided, blase, uninspired, and downright imbecilic at times.
I'd offer some quotations to back this up but this book already found it's rightful place (before it could be finished): the trash can of a train station.
Rating: 
Summary: Curiously flat
Review: I really should like this book. Kind of a contemporary Oddysey thing, with pre-9-11 NYC as its setting and the overall collapse of the 90s as the general theme. Interesting ideas there, and in the hands of DeLillo, it should've ben an interesting novel.
Sadly, this was not the case. And I can't put my finger on why. Or, I can, but the flaws I see here are, to my mind, things that are in other DeLillo works, strengths. Prime amongst these is the flat, uncompelling characters. Halfway through the book I realized that I simply did not care what happened to anyone. The characters are empty, barely differentiated, incredibly uncompelling. Which shouldn't be that much of a surprise - I've always found DeLillo's characterization to be a bit lacking. But usually, flat empty characters seem perfect for the text he's spinning (White Noise being merely the most obvious example of this). Here, however, they left me cold and uncaring.
And the overall theme, the end of the dotcom era, collapse of the 90s, etc., etc., etc. - yes it's an interesting theme. But, by this point, it's been done to death and DeLillo doesn't really add anything new. There are a couple of throwaway notions (Eric's belief that certain words and concepts are outmoded for one) that were compelling, but nothing's ever done with them.
What's good here? The dialogue for one. While it's basically DeLillo talking to himself, it is spritely and possessed of a lively rhythm (though I can't say the same for DeLillo's unfortunate attempts at approximating the rhymes of a Sufi MC). No one out there has quite DeLillo's touch with dialogue, and it's a pleasure to read.
And there are some isolated scenes that are quite good - the ending (though it's given away in the first 50 pages) for one; the barbershop scene for another.
All in all, this is something of a let down. DeLillo's capable of more and, with any luck, his next work will prove to be something a bit better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: A worthwhile read
Review: Cosmopolis is the 13th novel by Don DeLillo. It tells the story of a day in the life of a billionaire asset manager - a day spent mostly in his white stretch limousine, and a day when the currency market crashes (due mostly to his interference) and bankrupts him.
It's also a day anarchists take over Times Square, a day he makes love to his wife for the first time, and the day he sees what he believes is his own demise in his pocket watch.
Were Cosmopolis any longer, I think it would be a failure as a novel. As it is, the unevenness become unbearable toward the last 10 pages or so.
Aside from that, this is a provocative novel with a great array of images, ideas, and characters. Clocking in at 208 pages, it's a perfect length for its subject matter. I loved the passages with his Chief of Theory - she was certainly the most interestingly drawn character.
Rating:
Summary: The best book about a limo ride across town ever written.
Review:
But really, not a good book. I am a DeLillo fan. I thought Libra was excellent, and I thought Underworld was also incredible. Taut phrasing, good thrust of narrative, intelligent things to say through the story, especially with the former. I was looking forward to this book as an insight to my home, New York, as much as the previous two were insightful about American experience.
Instead, I received one of the more self-indulgent short books I've ever read. A wealthy "master-of-the-universe" type rides across town, has sex with 3 women whom he could care less about, questions himself, looks down on everyone he talks to, and makes worldly observations that he seems to find important yet are as overly dramatic and weighty as a college freshman's first lit paper.
One of the main problems, in my opinion, is that the book actually seems dated. Very 80's in it's view of powerful young men who seem convinced they know everything as representative of something important or trend in our society. Didn't we go through this already 15 years ago? Granted, the 90's had the dot-coms, but this guy seems to be a particularly irritating rehash of both decades.
Lastly, DeLillo's foray into rap lyrics makes me want to throw up.
BUT, all that being said, DeLillo STILL manages to write sentences and even entire pages that hold together in a way that other writers can only dream about. Insightful and important. But it so infrequent here and so overpowered by phrases such as "His prostate was asymmetrical" that the good is just obliterated by pretension.
Thankfully, it was short. It might be worth reading just for that reason.
Timothy J. Beck
Rating:
Summary: Cosmopolis: A Novel
Review: This is absolutly, by far, the worst book I have ever read. I purchased it in Germany at a train station where they did not have many english books to choose from. I should have just stared out the window during the long train ride! It was awful, depressing and just plain odd. The protagonist, Eric Packer is not the least bit interesting. He spends the day driving across Manhatten trying to get his hair cut, he meets various people along the way and has sex with many of them. He is married, but somehow he does not really know he is married. The odd thing is that he keeps running in to his wife when he decides to get out of his limo to get something to eat. How can she get across town when he can't? None of it makes any sense. Don't bother!
Rating:
Summary: Heavy Stuff
Review: I enjoyed Libra-- or remember enjoying it. I enjoyed the idea behind The Players and some of his other devices-- the Hitler porno tape in one of his other novels. Though I haven't been lured into Underworld (nor will I after reading Cosmopolis), I had always respected what De Lillo was trying to do. The vague here-thereness, the disturbing clipped descriptions, the flat menace made all the more menacing for its ordinariness...great stuff! Until I began flipping through Cosmopolis. Sigh. When you dispense with a meaningful plot or characterization and settle solely for atmosphere and dialogue, you've created at best the literary equivalent of white noise--his own creation. De Lillo has become one of those Important Authors that no longer has to entertain or enlighten or anything. He's reached the logical end of his journey as a Post-Modernist author and as such created a work that is...what? An ennervated American Pyscho? A Bonfire of the Vanities for those afflicted with ADD? Skip this bigtime.
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