COSMOPOLIS
Don DeLillo
Scribner
Fiction
ISBN: 0743244257

Perhaps the key to unlocking Don DeLillo's COSMOPOLIS can be found in the dedication. The surreal tale of the mega-rich Eric Packer traveling across New York City in his custom white stretch limousine to get a haircut is dedicated to novelist Paul Auster, whose "New York Trilogy" (CITY OF GLASS, GHOSTS and THE LOCKED ROOM) the book resembles in tone and commitment to its own internal logic. Indeed, at several points in the brief COSMOPOLIS, it is hard to remember that the book is only dedicated to Auster and not, in fact, written by him. As various individuals find their way into the limousine and engage in elliptical conversations with Packer, for example, Auster's difficult but engaging novels come to mind. However, whereas Auster's trilogy borders on the hypnotic, DeLillo's novel feels stilted and overly contrived.

DeLillo also borrows from James Joyce, not only by telling the story of a man wandering through a large city through the course of a single day ala ULYSSES, but by adopting Joyce's style of internal narrative for a passage late in the novel. The homage, like his nods to Auster, is not entirely successful, however.

In fact, COSMOPOLIS shines only when DeLillo writes like DeLillo. When Packer's limousine is halted by a violent attack on a major financial institution and he witnesses a man's self-immolation, the reader is treated to the author's gifts for describing the feel of crowds and cataclysmic events. The nature and behavior of crowds have been a major component of many DeLillo novels, including WHITE NOISE, MAO II and UNDERWORLD, and few if any contemporary authors dissect them as deftly. Still, even this passage sags a bit due to the reader's knowledge that DeLillo has purposely avoided the 9/11 attacks by setting his tale in April of 2000. That decision adds to the contrived feel of the novel and is a bitter disappointment for readers who consider DeLillo one of the few authors who might tackle the enormity of 9/11 in meaningful ways.

COSMOPOLIS does have some interesting things to say about the nature of wealth, sexual mores, violence and mind-body dualism. But the novel is far from DeLillo's best work, failing to address any of those topics in a truly engaging way and utterly avoiding the one topic that hovers over the book in absentia.

   --- Reviewed by Rob Cline (rjbcline@aol.com)

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