Book 2!

What up, post-modernism! Do I love you? Do I hate you? WHO KNOWS!*

There's nothing I enjoy quite like a good ol' mid-Western backdrop to any story, though. I feel like it's always the perfect setting; it's just boring enough that something has to happen and nondescript enough that that something really could be anything. It's like the green screen of North American lit.

Unfortunately, things I really dislike include**:

* banal academic banter

* absurd family situations

*quirky professors

*people who are obsessed with the notions of death and/or loneliness

*excessive paranoia***

SO, we are really only off to a so-so start here. But everyone (well, everyone who writes for the NY Times review section and anyone who wrote a book which hasn't garnered the acclaim Delillo has) is always raving about ol' Don, so it's time he and I got down, even if only for research purposes.

Thus far, he's managed to write a bunch of characters that only I seem to find unlikeable and still make me want to read more (even if only to figure out which child belongs to which character and exactly how many ex-wives our esteemed Professor has) and despite the various narcissistic indulgences, the dialogue is whip-smart. I can go on that alone, really. And so I do! Further updates when I get to this "Airborne Toxic Event" people keep ranting about.

*not me, that's for sure.

**but are not limited to

***get that enough on my own, thank you, drugs.