The Body Artist [Audio Cassette]

 

 

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The main character wants this and in a sense she strives for it. Let me explain. Lauren's husband, a relatively known film director dies. She struggles with her grief in a rented house where a man appears. He may be an escaped patient from a mental ward. Yet he seems to quote words that she or her dead husband said. This captivates her. She allows him to stay, at first as a link to her deceased love, and then as a gateway to her past. She tape records him and asks, would we recognize ourself if what we said in the past was presented to us. This is what she sees the man as doing.

The book begins in a very Pinteresque manner, a couple delineating the items of their lives, this is hers, this is his, as they fix breakfast. The blurb calls this opening a tour de force of eighteen pages. I disagree. It's not Pinter and it gets tedious in the way that parts of Travels in Scriptorium by Auster get tedious. We want a stronger story. This comes when book shifts to Lauren after her husband's death.

The elements of Lauren's life become her performance art. If you know art, like I do, you will see vague references to many artists who used their bodies as art. DeLillo makes a couple mistakes, he forgets or doesn't know Orlan, one of the major body artists around today, and he says that Bob Flanagan drives "nails" through a part of his anatomy better off not mentioned here -- but it was only one nail. But DeLillo is a writer and so we let that go in passing. Lauren's work takes the elements we've witnessed so far; she internalizes and presents to her audience, as we learn as she is interviewed over lunch. Her memories are dead pictures, but they are living moments.

What makes the book absolutely amazing is the quality of the writing. Once DeLillo gets into his stride we see him taking giant steps similar to what Beethoven did in the late string quartets. They are resonant, perceptive, absolutely beautiful in their small segments. It's called a novel but this is really more of a long short story or a novella, both in length, about 30K words and in its tone. DeLillo skips breadth but doesn't back off the verbal fireworks. There are small images, one line images that I just can't seem to shake off. This is train of thought combined with the deadly edge of a honed blade. How does one combine those two ideas, exactly the way DeLillo did it here. As I said, it's not a novel, don't read it for that and don't expect a soul searching catharsis. Read it like you are listening to chamber music and enjoy the moments.

I really loved the premise. I was fascinated about it. I think it would make a wonderful movie or play. It was a quick read and held my attention. I really would like to see the whole premise even taken farther. I was a bit dissapointed that we didn't focus on "Mr. Tuttle" more - I could've read about him even more.

This is not an easy novel, and don't let its length (a mere 124 pages) let you think otherwise.

The plot is anything but usual. After a young artist's husband commits suicide, she resumes her life only to one day discover a strange person sitting on a bed in an unused room, an otherworldly man-child who speaks in cryptic utterances that lack context and syntax. She assumes that he suffers from autism and plans to notify authorities; but changes her mind after hearing him repeat, word for word, a conversation she had with her husband on the day of his death. Wow.

Who is this quaint stranger -- unwilling time traveler? Is our protagonist no more than a desperate woman whose grief and isolation have made her delusional? At first I was somewhat frustrated by these questions, but found myself haunted by the layered meanings.

When it was not the prose that had me thinking, I was smitten with DeLillo's fascinatingly poetic writing style. He weaves such a riveting tapestry of words to delve into the emotional minutiae of his characters that he not only captivates our sympathetic attention he has us thinking like we were the ones he was talking about.

I highly recommend this effortlessly engrossing tale if you have a taste for offbeat but thought-provoking literature.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Delillo double-bogey
This is not meant to be helpful; rather it's meant to express my distaste for this Delillo offering. The Body Artist is one of the most artsy, pretentious novels I've ever read.

Published on July 16 2004 by C. Myers

1.0 out of 5 stars Hated it.
Hey, I liked "White Noise" too. But give me a break. Completely implausible with precious little insight to Delillo's masterful skill with dialogue and his uncanny... Read more

Published on Jun 22 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, thought-provoking parable...
The Body Artist is an interesting, engaging rumination. I do, however, have one piece of advice: be sure you are in the mood to read this book. Read more

Published on Mar 26 2004 by CoffeeGurl

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book for some
This is a not a dramatic book. This is a book that you read on a rainy afternoon in one sitting and bathe in the mood. Read more

Published on Mar 1 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars unbelievable......just how bad this is
I can honestly say this is one of the worst books I've ever read. It is poorly written, excruciatingly boring and proof-positive that a big name can get anything published. Read more

Published on Feb 19 2004 by Moses Alexander

4.0 out of 5 stars Who knows anything about anyone?
Don Delillo writes about another America, where there are no great heroics, soaring of spirit, nor great moral battles. Read more

Published on Dec 5 2003 by bobbyvail

1.0 out of 5 stars The Magician
I can't believe how many readers have been seduced by this goobledygook sophomoric word play. The success of any writer is his or her ability to tell a tale, seductively, clearly,... Read more

Published on Nov 15 2003 by tiseye

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad way to begin a book (by Gary Schwind)
I never got through a book as quickly as I got through this one. That's because I didn't actually read the whole thing. Read more

Published on Nov 4 2003 by Gone with the Schwind

3.0 out of 5 stars Show me the body
Don Delillo follows up his largest and finest work - 'Underworld' - with perhaps his smallest and poorest work: 'The Body Artist'. Read more

Published on Sep 19 2003 by J. A. Bellamy

4.0 out of 5 stars Ahhh!
Now, I'm no fan of this book's predecessor, 'Underworld', but 'The Body Artist' is a sublime, superbly crafted and touching story. Read more

Published on Jun 19 2003 by writing_static

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