A-
Baseball, Christianity, waste management, nuclear weapons, parenting, NYC, and the Cold War--Underworld is a novel with a lot going on, but it handles its many subject matters gracefully. Its depth justifies its length and meandering structure, and while I kept wishing the plot would become more substantial at some point, it never ceased being interesting throughout the journey. DeLillo's greatest tool is his dialogue, with all its lively back-and-forth and subtle meanings; no one talks like that in real life, but I kind of wish they would. In certain passages of this book DD comes across like a prophet of the 21st century, despite seemingly not knowing how URLs are formatted (how did editors not catch that? or was it purposeful?). Elsewhere he comes across as just a really good writer, who understands and masterfully portrays the messiness of human lives.