Yet I am more impressed by the moments when DeLillo abandons his irony and authorial distance, and enters deeply into the emotional heart of an interlude. In Underworld he presents a moving sub-plot involving a young abandoned girl trying to survive in the projects, and the social workers who try to rescue her. This account is so raw and seemingly unfiltered, that it is hard to believe that it came from the pen of this quintessentially post-modern author.
Along the way DeLillo tosses in a bevy of real-life figures and historical events. In addition to J. Edgar Hoover and Bobby Thomson, we encounter Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, Lenny Bruce, Toots Shor, the nuclear arms race, and an assortment of various other bits of contemporary history and popular culture. If Underworld were a shelf in your home, it would be covered with bric-a-brac, cheap mementos from past vacations, and a few important sentimental items almost hidden by the clutter.
Underworld, despite the claims made on its behalf, may not quite deserve enshrinement as the Great American Novel. I might even steer readers unfamiliar with this writer first to White Noise before urging them to tackle this big book. But if you are serious about taking the temperature of contemporary fiction you will eventually need to come to terms with Underworld. A lot of America has found its way into this massive work, and it is the author’s most ambitious novel. Much like Bobby Thomson does at the start of Underword, Don DeLillo has shown that he too is a Giant who can hit a home run that will long be heard ‘round the world.
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