Don DeLillo

Jim Finley, a young filmmaker, attempts to convince Richard Elster, a former secret war advisor, to tell his story on film, an endeavor complicated by the arrival of Richard's daughter, Jessie, from New York and a devastating event that throws everything into question. By the National Book Award-winning author of White Noise.

A Novel

Point Omega

In this potent and beautiful novel, the writer The New York Times calls “prophetic about twenty-first-century America” looks into the mind and heart of a scholar who was recruited to help the mili­tary conceptualize the war. We see Richard Elster at the end of his service. He has retreated to the desert, in search of space and geologic time. There he is joined by a filmmaker and by Elster’s daughter Jessica—an “otherworldly” woman from New York. The three of them build an odd, tender intimacy, something like a family. Then a devastating event turns detachment into colossal grief, and it is a human mys­tery that haunts the landscape of desert and mind.

Donald

I don't know why I love this novel so much, but I do. If you listed criticisms of it, I'd probably agree with most of them, but the imperfections of the thing don't get in the way of its glorious core.

It's really just a novella. You can read it in a sitting, and you ought to. This was my third reading...

This is my first DeLillo, and it is a very, very good novel. As I wrote elsewhere, if an unknown writer had written this book, we would read it in awe, but for DeLillo, it has to stand up to his entire oeuvre.

The only weakness in this novel is the character Jessie, but she almost works. Or maybe she does work. I haven't made up my mind yet. In any case, the limitations of her character do not get in the way of novel.

I recommend watching clips from '24 Hour Psycho' before and after reading this.

Point Omega A Novel

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