Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
66 used & new from CDN$ 1.72
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Underworld: A Novel
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Underworld: A Novel (Paperback)

by Don DeLillo (Author) "I was driving a Lexus through a rustling wind ..." (more)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (288 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 21.00
Price: CDN$ 15.33 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.67 (27%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Only 3 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Ordering for Christmas? To ensure delivery by December 24 to Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal, choose Express at checkout. Read more about holiday shipping.

16 new from CDN$ 10.98 50 used from CDN$ 1.72

Frequently Bought Together

Underworld: A Novel + Beloved + Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
Total List Price: CDN$ 58.90
Price For All Three: CDN$ 42.99

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Underworld: A Novel by Don DeLillo

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Beloved by Toni Morrison

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Gravity's Rainbow (Deluxe Classics)

Gravity's Rainbow (Deluxe Classics)

by Thomas Pynchon
4.1 out of 5 stars (222)  CDN$ 16.06
Beloved

Beloved

by Toni Morrison
3.9 out of 5 stars (532)  CDN$ 13.83
Against The Day

Against The Day

by Thomas Pynchon
CDN$ 15.70
White Noise

White Noise

by Don Delillo
3.7 out of 5 stars (202)  CDN$ 12.05
American Pastoral: A Novel

American Pastoral: A Novel

by Philip Roth
3.7 out of 5 stars (114)  CDN$ 13.83
› Explore similar items

Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon.com

While Eisenstein documented the forces of totalitarianism and Stalinism upon the faces of the Russian peoples, DeLillo offers a stunning, at times overwhelming, document of the twin forces of the cold war and American culture, compelling that "swerve from evenness" in which he finds events and people both wondrous and horrifying. Underworld opens with a breathlessly graceful prologue set during the final game of the Giants-Dodgers pennant race in 1951. Written in what DeLillo calls "super-omniscience" the sentences sweep from young Cotter Martin as he jumps the gate to the press box, soars over the radio waves, runs out to the diamond, slides in on a fast ball, pops into the stands where J. Edgar Hoover is sitting with a drunken Jackie Gleason and a splenetic Frank Sinatra, and learns of the Soviet Union's second detonation of a nuclear bomb. It's an absolutely thrilling literary moment. When Bobby Thomson hits Branca's pitch into the outstretched hand of Cotter--the "shot heard around the world"--and Jackie Gleason pukes on Sinatra's shoes, the events of the next few decades are set in motion, all threaded together by the baseball as it passes from hand to hand.

"It's all falling indelibly into the past," writes DeLillo, a past that he carefully recalls and reconstructs with acute grace. Jump from Giants Stadium to the Nevada desert in 1992, where Nick Shay, who now owns the baseball, reunites with the artist Kara Sax. They had been brief and unlikely lovers 40 years before, and it is largely through the events, spinoffs, and coincidental encounters of their pasts that DeLillo filters the Cold War experience. He believes that "global events may alter how we live in the smallest ways," and as the book steps back in time to 1951, over the following 800-odd pages, we see just how those events alter lives. This reverse narrative allows the author to strip away the detritus of history and pop culture until we get to the story's pure elements: the bomb, the baseball, and the Bronx. In an epilogue as breathless and stunning as the prologue, DeLillo fast-forwards to a near future in which ruthless capitalism, the Internet, and a new, hushed faith have replaced the Cold War's blend of dread and euphoria.

Through fragments and interlaced stories--including those of highway killers, artists, celebrities, conspiracists, gangsters, nuns, and sundry others--DeLillo creates a fragile web of connected experience, a communal Zeitgeist that encompasses the messy whole of five decades of American life, wonderfully distilled. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



From Library Journal

On October 3, 1951, there occurred two "shots heard round the world"?Bobby Thomson's last-minute homer, which sent the N.Y. Giants into the World Series, and a Soviet atomic bomb test. The fallout from these two events provides the nexus for this sagalike rumination on the last 50 years of American cultural history. DeLillo's opening depiction of the scene at the N.Y. Polo Grounds that day is masterly. Unfortunately, sustaining the initial brilliance proves difficult. There are some marvelously drawn characters?Sister Edgar, a vision-seeking nun of the old school; Ismael, a ghetto-based graffiti artist and budding capitalist; J. Edgar Hoover?and thought-provoking ideas, e.g., waste as the cornerstone of civilization and the power of remembered images lurking just beneath the surface of our minds. But somehow the various parts of the story seem more satisfying than the whole. DeLillo is one of our most gifted contemporary authors whose works belong in all academic and public libraries, yet one suspects that his truly "great" novel is yet to come.
-?David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
I was driving a Lexus through a rustling wind. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Underworld: A Novel
75% buy the item featured on this page:
Underworld: A Novel 3.7 out of 5 stars (288)
CDN$ 15.33
Infinite Jest
10% buy
Infinite Jest 3.9 out of 5 stars (293)
CDN$ 16.78
Gravity's Rainbow (Deluxe Classics)
7% buy
Gravity's Rainbow (Deluxe Classics) 4.1 out of 5 stars (222)
CDN$ 16.06
White Noise
5% buy
White Noise 3.7 out of 5 stars (202)
CDN$ 12.05
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

288 Reviews
5 star:
 (141)
4 star:
 (35)
3 star:
 (34)
2 star:
 (37)
1 star:
 (41)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (288 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read", April 20 2004
By Meredith Weisshaar (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This is one of the best novels I have read in years. It was difficult to put down. Is Delillo pretentious? Sure, and so are a lot of other great writers. I will continue to re-read Underworld, because I suspect that it becomes more powerful the longer the reader has lived life.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any aspirational author, Mar 26 2004
I first read Underworld four years ago and it's one of the few books I've read that had a major impact on me. It was also the first book by DeLillo I read and as soon as I finished it I went straight out and bought everything else he'd ever written, something I've only done with one other author, Joseph Heller.
The similarity between these two authors is that they both showed me just how great the modern novel can be. Despite what may be written elsewhere DeLillo's writing is anything but untruthful or affected. He does his best not to criticise or judge but to simply show a warts and all snapshot of the different ways it is possible for people to think in the world we live in today. Underworld is a beautiful book, funny and wistful, it's not the easiest book in the world to read but every sentence is rewarding. Once you've finished it I'm sure you'll do the same as I did and buy the rest of work.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars I don't usually read fiction, but this book ..., Mar 1 2004
By A Customer
Absolutely beautiful! I usually do not read fiction but this book has captured my heart from its first chapter. Beautifully written, easily readable, touching. Although the action might not be captivating, Don Dellilo's words are. The way he paints characters, feelings and situations is unmatched. I would leave a quote from the book but there are too many worth mentioning.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One Amazing Novel!
This is a HUGE novel, both in length (over 800 pages) and in ambition, but is well worth the effort. Read more
Published on Jul 11 2004 by D. J. Zabriskie

1.0 out of 5 stars UNDERWHELMED
There's nothing honest here, the author is merely playing tricks with words. His style is boring, pretentious and conceited. Read more
Published on Mar 17 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Well written dreadfully boring
A boring novel, lacking any significant cohesive thread, written by a man attempting to examine a large chunk of history he is not distanced far enough from to be able to describe... Read more
Published on Feb 25 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars An Uncontestable Classic
This is easily one of the most remarkable novels in all of modern American letters. Granted, it dwells in that rarified and charicteristically self-selecting family of novels... Read more
Published on Feb 5 2004 by Sean M. Winkel

5.0 out of 5 stars of men and baseballs
underworld is truly a wonderful book. on one hand, it traces out the path a famous baseball takes during the course of its life. Read more
Published on Dec 10 2003 by Charlie Mcintosh

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Quite possibly the most beautifully written book of my lifetime. For those born in the 1970s, this is your Ulysses and Sound and the Fury. Read more
Published on Dec 8 2003 by John R. Finger

4.0 out of 5 stars Building something out of nothing: the American Way
Stories of Americans tied together by a possibly apocryphal piece of baseball memorobilia - the ball which connected with Bobby Thompson's bat to make the "Shot Heard 'Round the... Read more
Published on Dec 3 2003 by Macro Micro

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Novella, but Shabby Book
This book is great for the first 80 pages. Read that. Then put it down. It tries to be the great American novel of the year, decade, century, millennium, space-time continuum, and... Read more
Published on Nov 20 2003 by Ralph-Michael

1.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Boy was I impressed and so is uncle Elmer
Sorry, forgot the question mark.

I have an uncle Elmer. He is a family amusement. When I was a young man he used to come to family reunions,funerals and weddings and be quite... Read more

Published on Nov 17 2003 by tiseye

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Much Worth the Read
The range of reactions about this book among the reviewers here is testimony to the strengths and weaknesses of DeLillo's UNDERWORLD. Read more
Published on Oct 22 2003 by Rocco Dormarunno

Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject





















i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.