Rating: 
Summary: A Failure
Review: The concept, a day-in-the-life of a young American capitalist as he sets out in his limo to get a haircut uptown is intriguing. However, the devil lies in the details of which this book is sparingly thin on. The main character and the lovers and American archtypes(anarchists, protestors, politicians, wall st gurus) he encounters throught out the day are, as Melville would say, nothing but pasteboard masks. Delillo is an original writer chasing after interesting ideas relevent in American culture, it is just that in this book unlike "White Noise" and "Libra" he didn't do his homework and the book comes off flat as a result.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything does things to DeLillo.
Review: This book is so musical and poetic that I immediately began reading it again after finishing. Knowing the entire story, which you may because some of the reviews have nothing better to do but tell you it, ruins nothing. It is inspiring, too. It has totally got me back into wanting to learn about our culture. Because you wonder, how could DeLillo possibly have learned so much about to write the things in here? I want a subscription to Harper's and I'm going to start reading The Financial Times again. I'm reading Doug Henwood's book "Wall Street" to get a handle on the financial sector. Eric, the billionaire main character, has a Chief of Theory working for him in his investment firm, and boy can she rip it up on the waxing theoretical, so I'm (trying to) read Frederic Jameson's "Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" to get my brain back into that mode. But ultimately, we're talking about genius here. The things DeLillo can write about a skyscraper in New York are not things a normal person could think of, no matter what her research background. Yes, they're just words. Just like the human brain is just building blocks. But their arrangements are sublime, not capable of being merely calculated-they must be divinely inspirationally invented. I think 9/11 did something to DeLillo, because his writing has been cranked up to the next level. But I guess everything does things to DeLillo.
Rating:
Summary: A let-down
Review: This isn't the DeLillo of 'Underworld', 'MaoII', 'White Noise' or 'Libra'. The prose of 'Cosmopolis', for a start, is mannered and laboured, with strange staccato rhythms. The insights into contemporary society have been replaced by platitudes that could have been churned out by any [one] at Wired. And if you're looking for the trademark sly, black humour, forget it -- 'Cosmopolis' is tedious and dry. What a great pity. It is not one's case that novelists shouldn't evolve and change (which is why 'The Body Artist' was welcome) but surely DeLillo is capable of much, much more than this disappointing, charmless volume.
Rating:
Summary: can anyone say genius?
Review: Don Delillo is a genuis. He proved it with White Noise, he proved it with Underworld, he is now proving it again in Cosmopolis. Any questions?
Rating: 
Summary: Another curveball from DeLillo ponders modern life
Review: Don DeLillo has changed gears yet again for his latest novel. After dazzling everyone with his opulent epic "Underworld" and slowing down to the speed of a crawl with its follow-up "The Body Artist" he once again moves his exploration of American culture to another avenue with "Cosmopolis."The story, set in New York before 9/11, is classic DeLillo (in the same vein as "White Noise") as he follows a twentysomething financial guru through his day with his ultimate goal being, getting a hair cut. While his speculation and investments in the Yen spiral up and down he meets with his advisors, his proctologist, his estranged wife and a few lovers. This story is a day in the life of a pseudo-dot.com anointed billionaire on the edge of losing everything to the eventual disintegration of the tech bubble. The language is exciting, but simplistic and very dry. The characters (other than the protagonist) are a little thin, but this is not a character study. It is a moment in time of the greatest economic boom in our country's history, prior to the most tragic and uncertain moment in our history. This novel could very well be the last definitive statement on pre-9/11 life in the United States, while at the same time encompasing the fear and uncertainty that inevitably laid ahead.
Rating:
Summary: Move over Melville
Review: Like many of DeLillo's novels, Cosmopolis is characterized by incisive, playful prose, a taut plot arc and a host of well-put questions about the postmodern condition. The story of capital-magnate Eric Packer's simultaneous demise and ascent (depending on whom you ask) is presented as sleekly as the notably allegorical uber-limousine that provides much of the novel's setting. Its exploration of the theme of isolation amid the crowd of Manhattan is perhaps the most poignant written since Melville's "Bartelby, Scribner." If there's a downside to the novel, it's that Cosmopolis falls prey to the Kundera Syndrome: its players have a tendency to wax philosophical with a frequency and intensity that becomes somewhat grating. Much as DeLillo's thinking is engaging and topical, it's a little much at times and, worse, tends to detract from some of the moments of poignant surreality by cerebralizing them, shifting them from fascinatingly visceral aberrations to intellectual playthings.
Rating:
Summary: Another Precise and Thoughtful Post-Underworld Work
Review: I read "Cosmopolis" more as another part of DeLillo's body of work than as a stand-alone book, because, almost immmediately, I noticed the tight thickness of the prose and felt that he was trying to capture and convey the same kind of depth he did in "Underworld" but on a smaller scale. This novel is full of perfect sentences that can either enhance or erase themselves after considered reading. The setting and characters are wonderfully suited to the method, a frontier world for the new language DeLillo is still drafting.
Rating:
Summary: A fine book. A worthwhile read. I hated it!
Review: I was reluctant to read this novel even though it was highly recommended. That's because five years ago I read and reviewed "Underworld", another of this author's novels, and while I thought that the writing was brilliant, his world view was very disturbing. But I was curious about Cosmopolis. And it was short, a mere 209 pages long, a book I knew I could easily read in one sitting. It took me more than one sitting to read however. It actually took me several weeks. That's because every time I put it down, I was reluctant to pick it up again. Perhaps that's because it rings so true and its blows fall so close to home. And, of course, the disturbing world view I had expected was there in all its glory.
The characters aren't real. They're not supposed to be. Everything in this book is larger than life. And everything has an exaggerated bitter sting to it. The setting is New York City and the geography is familiar. It's some time in the very near future, when big-moneyed corporate executives rule the world even more than they do now. Eric, a 28-year old billionaire is one of them. The storyline is about him setting out to get a haircut and all the action takes place in a single day.
Eric is in a white limousine which is equipped with every convenience the author could think of. He has several bodyguards too, and a market analyst who interprets data from world markets constantly. People visit him in his limo, including a doctor who gives him a daily physical. Eric also manages to have romantic encounters with three different women as well as his wife. He makes choices that have him lose his fortune in the stock market. His car is attacked by anarchists. He has to pause and watch a funeral for a rap musician. And he even gets involved in working as an extra in a strange and upsetting film. And, early on in the book, the reader knows Eric is hurtling towards real disaster.
But the book is more than this storyline of course. It is an indictment of the capitalist system that once held out such hope. It shows the shallowness of the people, making every single character seem like a little marionette on strings and the whole tale one big puppet show.
This is a fine book. It is a worthwhile read. I just can't help it though. I hated it.
Recommended only for literary buffs who relish discomfort.
Rating:
Summary: Insipid useless self indulgent pratter
Review: Have been traveling allot lately (thus the light postings). I was in Portland three weeks ago and met my brother for coffee at <a href="http://www.powells.com">Powells</a>. Powells is literally a candy store for the book owner. Sprawling now over more than one square city block, you are handed a map to the sections when you walk in. Just on my way through the technical section to the coffee shop, I picked up five books. Unfortunately I should have figured out from the $5.98 sales price on Cosmopolis (regularly $13.00) that something was fishy. Even though it was in the "staff recommendations" section. I keep forgetting that many times what the staff of a bookstore like Powells likes is somewhat like what indie film fanatics like in movies. Quirky, off beat tomes that appeal to a very limited audience.
That is Cosmopolis in spades. I don't know the person who recommended it, but I bet he/she only wears black, lives in shared housing with other tortured souls and fancies themselves "alternative". I like many alternative things. Many times the best ideas come from the fringes. In Cosmopolis's case though, only dull insipid self serving slop is served up though. I made it to page 89 before giving up for a total lack of interest. Completely uninteresting characters, poor structure, and no obvious point. By half way through a "novel" (a stretch at 200 pages paperback) you should at least CARE what the hell happens to the characters. The depth of my apathy was so deep that I almost left the book in the hotel this morning. But then I thought the world deserved to know how pathetic this drivel was. If my sacrifice of a couple hours can save even one soul the torture (and lost money) of this waste of natural resources then I might get back some of the karma this thing sucked away.
The Martin Tobias rating of 1-5, this gets a ZERO. Run away.
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.
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