The Names in Constant Reader

Aug 03, 2013 Clifford rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

The Names by Don DeLillo is a fascinating but somewhat fuzzy book. Set primarily in Greece, it tells the story of James Axton, an American who develops risk analyses, those odd-sounding reports used by international investors and insurers. When the book was published in 1982, would readers have suspected that Axton worked for the CIA? It was the first thing I thought of.

But Axton's work is only a part of this intricate story about language, alphabets, secrecy, and cultural identity.

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Jun 23, 2008 Pang rated it did not like it

This is probably the hardest book I remember reading in a long time. I got zero enjoyment out of it. The book was considered one of the classics, though I just didn't get it. I didn't get if there was any plot, and the story was almost unreadable. I felt like it was babbling on and on. The suspense just wasn't that suspenseful. There was no significance about the murders, or the significance of Jim's job. I did get that he was led to believe something that may not had been... but it wasn't that ...more

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May 06, 2008 Al rated it liked it

Shelves: 2008-books

DeLillo is a tough author at times, he can also be fantastic. Underworld is a masterpiece and i loved that. Fortunately or unfortunately, that was the first DeLillo I read and ever since I have been trying to rediscover the brilliance of that novel. Nothing has matched it, but a lot have been interesting: white noise, libra, falling man and now The Names. I think he is such an American writer and I like that about him.

the names made me think and seems remarkable that it was written in the early ...more

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May 28, 2008 Jen C. rated it liked it

The Names was enough to make me want to read more Don DeLillo, even after an awful brush with Cosmopolis. I'll admit there were plenty of pages during which I wasn't completely sure I understood what I was reading, but the language alone kept me going. DeLillo's diction was so precise and lyrical in places that particular sentences and phrases didn't even stick out as being especially beautiful-- I wasn't moved by the words themselves but rather the colors, shadows and moods evoked by the them.

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Apr 10, 2016 Joe Mossa rated it liked it

i want to like this writer. he is an italian american writer in the same class with philip roth, saul bellow and other jewish writers. i got tired of reading of the jewishness that they wrote about and wanted to read of something written by a famous italian literary writer. this book was so subtle and vague that i think i missed his main points. i should read it again.

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