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Title: This is some kind of joke, right?
Review: Much to the protests of the DeLillo fanbase, I decided to undertake his first novel. And what an undertaking it was. It's been a long time since I had to actually work myself to get to the end of a chapter. While I held out as long as could, wading through endless trite observations and self-congratulatory manic-depressive episodes, the fact is these characters have no substance whatsoever. I'm sure his fans will contend that is exactly the point of the novel, but I'd rather learn that lesson from a read with an actual story. This novel was one meandering paragraph after another. I couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling that I was witnessing a bad reading from an old college writing class. It's the non-violent, deficient love-child of "On The Road" and "American Psycho". In the simplest terms, this is an extremely boring read. Some people can't cross the barrier between different types of writing, nor should they. Americana is an excellent case in point.
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