Read Much?

With the recent cold snap, I have had a good excuse to do what I really want to do; chain myself to my futon and read non-stop. In my last post, I mentioned that I was reading the Don DeLillo novel "Cosmopolis" and I promised to comment. I decided that I needed to ruminate over the book a little more before discussing it. In the meantime, I have completed the 738 page Tom Wolfe novel "I am Charlotte Simmons" a book that I have been waiting to go to paperback so I could afford it. With the cold whether, I read the last 412 pages in the last 48 hours!

So it's time to compare the two, starting in chronological order.


Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo

I have been a fan of Don DeLillo since I read "Underworld" in 2002 after listening to an English student laud the merit of the book. Cosmopolis is the forth? fifth? book by DeLillo that I have read. Of the four or five I have read, this one was the most disappointing.

The book is a kind of modern usage of the Greek tragic method, that is, a heroic character meets his downfall due to a single character flaw. Eric, the major character (note my hesitation in calling him the protagonist), is the modern hero; the ultra rich twenty something. I can't deny that it is a masterful piece of writing. DeLillo is one of my favorite geniuses but I hated this book.

Eric's critical flaw seems to be (I get this from reading the book and listening to a DeLillo interview)that he is unable to think of anyone but himself. In fact, the plot is centered around Eric's desire to get a hair cut. I am forced to admit that in the end, it becomes a decent story of redemption and learning too late that there are others in the universe. The problem is the ride to get there. In true postmodern fashion, DeLillo treats Eric's other destructive traits as completely natural, not part of his flaw at all. Eric's ridiculous vanity and sexual proclivity are treated as side issues, not vices at all but a luxury available to the rich that are supposed to make Eric's fortune complete.



I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

"I am Charlotte Simmons" on the other hand seems a little more willing to call a spade a spade. In his novel, Tom Wolfe treats human sexual proclivity (which doesn't mean promiscuity by the way. Look it up) as the dangerous catalyst to destruction that it is. The book is not about sex per se, but it takes a rightful place near center in the novel, which is about college life.

Wolfe expertly depicts the ridiculousness of the "maturing" process in that oh so important college experience. He shines light on and exposes all that is banal about humanity and hypocritical about academia: the rampant sexuality bordering on perversion ("wanna swap [partners]?"), the dumb language of young men, which he comically refers to as f--k patois (look it up), and the endless snipping and sniping of females ages 18-22.

The plot centers on the sometimes heart warming and sometimes heartbreaking story of Charlotte Simmons, a self loathing back woods girl thrown into ivy league college life. He outlines her sub-text and speaks her thoughts in such a way that I thought 'this must be exactly how girls think.' Since I don't know that for sure, I plan to force my wife to read the book and tell me for sure, expecting fully that she will say "Oh it's so true."