Ratner's Star

Ratner Star P241, death, v. like W.N. P222, power of alphabet, "If you know the right combination of letters, you can make anything." p13 1st full P, "Mathematics made sense." Ratner Star !!Q p195, "Existence would be sheer dread without the verifiable fictions of mathematics." "Watch out for your nervous......more

DICHOTOMY & SEQUENCE: Hard Books "[Don DeLillo's] books are hard: all of them expressions of someone who has ideas (I don't mean opinions), who reads things other than novels and newspapers (though he clearly reads those too, and to advantage), and who experiments with literary convention." Frank Lent......more

Chapter Alpha: the book is a wall of sound a wall of words it took me over two months to read it, unheard of for me. you open the book you go to a chapter you read the chapter you fall into a black hole it takes forever to read it is a timeless experience you come out of the chapter and you wonde......more

A rounded-up five stars to reflect my reading experience and to respect these 438 pages of pinned, maxed, honed, redolent, amusing, inventive, insane, intelligent, wise, perfectly phrased, flowing, individuated, ribald prose. It's mid-'70s meta maximalism, for sure, its density eased by stretches of......more

My reactions to this novel can be put rather succinctly. If David Foster Wallace is indeed a fan of Don Delillo, this is the novel he has stolen from most. If Don Delillo is indeed a fan of Thomas Pynchon, this is the novel that Pynchon most directly inspired. But regardless of its influences or the......more