Although not an avid
fan of Don DeLillo, I have read a few of his novels without the urge to read
all his works. I have ranged from red
hot, Underworld to luke-cold, Libra.
When I saw his latest novel, Zero
K, the jacket prompted me to buy it.
I am glad I did. While not as
sweeping as Underworld, I found the
premise and the prose most intriguing.
Don DeLillo is an
American novelist, playwright, and essayist.
He was born in the Bronx, NY in 1936.
Significantly to me, his influences are listed as Thomas Pynchon, Ernest
Hemingway, William Faulkner, Vladimir, Nabokov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and last,
but certainly neither least nor last, James Joyce. This is powerhouse-central for my reading
satisfaction. I haven’t reviewed some of
these authors, because I last read most of them before the beginning of “Likely
Stories.” I think I will dig some up for
a much needed second reading.
Zero K tells the story of Ross Lockhart and his second wife, Artis, and his
son Jeffrey from his first marriage to Madeline. Ross has amassed a huge fortune, but Artis is
dying of cancer. He becomes involved as
an investor to a program known as the “Convergence.” This organization, hidden deep underground
somewhere in central Asia, has developed a process for preserving a body in
deep freeze -- hence “zero K” for zero degrees Kelvin, or absolute zero. When Jeffrey learns of this plan he is, at
first intrigued, but when He learns his father will join Artis even though he
is not ill, he becomes horrified. To
make matters worse, Artis and Ross ask Jeffrey to “go with them,” even though
he is perfectly healthy.
DeLillo’s prose has
an urgency to it, as he slowly unveils secrets about the organization. Jeffrey has had some personal difficulties
lately, and he is also looking for a “new world.” Much of the novel involves discussions and speculation
about time, death, re-birth, and immortality.
I also sensed that Jeffrey might have some degree of autism.
Jeffrey, the
narrator, wanders around the complex with a wrist monitor, which restricts his
access to a highly limited degree. He
attends lectures for family members about to die. Few of these people have names, but Jeffrey
wants to give each a name. DeLillo
writes, “Artis has spoken about being artificially herself. Was this the character, the half fiction who
would soon be transformed. or reduced, or intensified, becoming pure self,
suspended in ice? I didn’t want to think
about it. I wanted to think about a name
for the woman [speaker]. // She spoke, with pauses, about the nature of
time. What happens to the idea of
continuum – past present, future – in the cryonic chamber? Will you understand days, years and
minutes? Will this faculty diminish and
die? How human are you without your
sense of time? More human than ever? Or do you become fetal, an unborn thing? //
She looked at Miklos Szabo, the Old World professor, and I imagined him in a
three-piece suit, someone from the 1930s, a renowned philosopher having an
illicit romance with a woman named Magda. // ‘Time is too difficult,’ he said”
(67-68).
With the ever
growing number of states allowing a patient to make the decision to end his or
her life, this topic has been on my mind whenever I see a friend or family
member kept alive with machines. Don
DiLillo’s latest novel, Zero K, is an
excellent story to spark a discussion about end of life. 5 stars.
--Chiron, 6/12/16
No comments:
Post a Comment