‘The Names’ by Don DeLillo     (1982) – 339 pages

You may ask why I read this decidedly old novel. Having read the three novels ‘White Noise’, ‘Libra’, and ‘Mao II’, I consider Don DeLillo one of the finest, if not the finest, writers in recent US history. I have a copy of ‘Underworld’ which I intend to read when I have time and space to read an 827-page novel.

Geoff Dyer wrote an article in The Guardian in 2014 stating that if US novels had been eligible for the Booker Prize in 1982, ‘The Names’ would have won. The original reviews of ‘The Names’ were rather negative, but over the years it has gained admirers.

Delillo has had an interesting career as a writer. Before ‘White Noise’ which was DeLillo’s big breakthrough he had written eight post-modern novels which had limited success. After ‘Underworld’ which is considered DeLillo’s supreme achievement, DeLillo wrote five shorter novels which have garnered mixed reviews.

So does ‘The Names’ belong with the set of DeLillo’s other four masterpieces or is it the last of his apprentice works? To find out the answer to this question, I read ‘The Names’ for myself.

Most of ‘The Names’ takes place in Athens, Greece. James Axton has followed his divorced wife Kathryn and their young son Tap to Athens who are there for an archaeological dig.

“This is what love comes down to, things that happen, and what we say about them. Certainly that is what I wanted from Kathryn and Tap, the seeping love of small talk and family chat. I wanted them to tell me how they spent their day.”

James has obtained a position as a risk analyst for a corporate insurer. The job is to evaluate the risks, especially the terrorist risk, for major executives as they carry out their corporate duties in the Middle East. As part of his job, he travels to various places such as Beirut and Ankara and Jordan.

“This is a relatively safe place for a Turk. Very bad in Paris. Even worse in Beirut. The Secret Army is very active there. Every secret army in the world keeps a post office box in Beirut.”

There is a mysterious “language cult” called Ta Onomata operating throughout the Middle East that is behind a number of unexplained murders. They murder people whose initials match the letters of place names. I found this rather silly, but I suppose that was the point.

“They intended nothing, they meant nothing. They only matched the letters. What beautiful names.”

One of the characters wants to infiltrate and film the cult

“The twentieth century is on film. It’s the filmed century. You have to ask yourself if there is anything about us more important than the fact that we’re constantly on film, constantly watching ourselves. The whole world is on film, all the time.”

Ultimately James finds out that his employer is a front for the CIA.

“American strategy. This is interesting, how the Americans choose strategy over principle every time and yet keep believing in their own innocence.”

While many of DeLillo’s lines about various topics, his digressions, are interesting in themselves, for me the novel as a whole does not cohere. Maybe it is because I’m out of practice reading DeLillo’s work. Who knows? However the ridiculous plot of a cult that kills people based on the initials of their names kind of spoiled the novel for me. I got the impression that not even DeLillo was interested in the plot since it is dropped without a resolution.

Grade:   B-

‘Zero K’ by Don DeLillo    (2016) – 274 pages

It is not that I lack appreciation for Don DeLillo’s previous work.  I consider his three novels ‘White Noise’, ‘Libra’, and ‘Mao II’ among the finest totally captivating modern fiction I have read.  Somehow I still haven’t gotten to ‘Underworld’ which is supposed to be his ultimate masterpiece.

“In ‘Mao II’, DeLillo said, “Stories have no point if they don’t absorb our terror”.  DeLillo has confronted the all-encompassing horrors and frights of our modern world for his entire career from Hitler studies (‘White Noise’) to the Kennedy assassination (‘Libra’) to global terrorism (‘Mao II’).

However his new cryonics novel ‘Zero K’ did not work for me.  Sorry.

I fully expect that many of the robber barons of the 21^st century, after gloriously partaking in all the good and great things in this short life, now are doing all imaginable to extend that life beyond its mortal limits.  If that means having their bodies frozen in a cryonic chamber until a cure for death can be found, so be it.

“Life everlasting belongs to those of breathtaking wealth.”  

First, here are some facts about the reality of cryonics.  Way back in 1967, James Bedford was the first person put in successful cryonic suspension by the actual non-profit Alcor Foundation of Scottsdale, Arizona which is the largest cryonics organization in the world.  He is still waiting to be thawed.  Perhaps the most famous person to be suspended there is baseball Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams.   The Alcor Corporation currently holds 52 whole bodies and 94 human brains in suspension.

So the idea of cryonics has been around for at least 50 years.  DeLillo personalizes his cryonics story by putting his fully developed fictional characters in this situation.

DeLillo’s novel ‘Zero K’ mainly takes place in far-off Kyrgyzstan where an operation called Convergence has built a cryonics compound.  Wealthy businessman Ross Lockhart has brought his ailing wife here to be frozen.  Ross’s son Jeffrey accompanies them, and he tells the story.

“At some point in the future, death will become unacceptable even as the life of the planet becomes more fragile.”

Much of the dialogue in ‘Zero K’ consists of such pronouncements, and many of the scenes are apocalyptic visions rather than actual events.  All of these disembodied voices and images make the novel seem distant and cold, and I never did warm up to these characters.

The major part of the novel which takes place at the compound in Kyrgyzstan is at least susceptible to human understanding, stark and cold but still comprehensible.   However I found the later scenes that take place in New York to be a pointless portentous muddle.

By all means read Don DeLillo, because he is for sure one of the modern great fiction writers, but once again perhaps you might skip ‘Zero K’.

 Grade:   C+