The At Man

I gave 2 stars because it is clear DeLillo can write very well, however, generally speaking, it felt like the author was trying too hard to be different resulting in a wandering and rather pointless read.

White Noise is one of those books trying to offer commentary on American life and death but misses its mark by being over-the-top pedantic. I understand that DeLillo does this to connect the book to American life, but it makes for an incredibly sluggish read. The characters have no agency in their lives; everything, from the fake “disasters” to the Airborn Toxic Event, are just simulations they enact. Yes, I understand this is the point: people going through life are subjected to events that they cannot prevent and can only respond to.

DeLillo touches on issues that are important, such as over-the-top advertising, pollution, violence, drug use, death, etc. but only in a passing hazy way.

I suppose that my complaint with the book is not that it does not do what it sets out to do but rather that the philosophical backing is what it sets out to do is that of a nihilistic 14-year-old.

This is the second of Moshfegh's books that I read, and while good, it does not grip like her magnum opus My Year of Rest and Relaxation. The writing is still excellent; while Vesta's mind races, the story itself feels slower and leaves you feeling unsettled, in a good way. Vesta is an unreliable narrator, and people morph into the images she creates. You are never sure if she is simply imagining the story or if she truly is being stalked by a killer. The conclusion, of course, is unsatisfying because we don't receive any answers, leaving you wondering what really happened.

Pastoral Songs is heart-wrenching and hopeful at the same time. The beginning of the book opens upon the author's childhood and covers how he learned the traditional way of farming from his grandfather. The midsection covers how he and his father modernized the farm after his grandfather died and how they began to regret doing so, and the last third covers how he begins to reverse the damages done. It is not a technical book or a guide to traditional farming; rather, it is a story of one man and how he relates to his fields, woods, and hills.