Mao II
Don DeLillo · b. 1936 · USA
Why it matters
A reclusive novelist, modeled loosely on Salinger and Pynchon both, watches a terrorist's hostage-taking claim the cultural authority once reserved for the novel. DeLillo's eerily prescient meditation on crowds, images, and mass spectacle as the new narrative art.
At a glance
political novelpostmodernpsychological novel
Difficulty 6/10slow pace241 pagesAphoristic, elliptical prose compresses big ideas into a short, demanding novel.
