Americana

by Don DeLillo

Overview

“DeLillo’s swift, ironic, and witty cross-country American nightmare doesn't have a dull or an unoriginal line.”—Rolling Stone

The first novel by Don DeLillo, author of the National Book Award–winning White Noise

At twenty-eight, David Bell is living the American Dream. He has fought his way to the top, becoming a top television executive who has captivated America’s imagination through the images on their flickering screens.

At the height of his success, David becomes disillusioned with the realities of consumerism and mass media and sets out to rediscover reality—and himself. Camera in hand, he journeys across the country in a mad and moving attempt to capture and find meaning in America’s past, present, and future.

Don DeLillo delivers a witty and incisive examination of Amerca’s cultural heritage and the complexities of identity in this classic work of postmodernist literary fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140119480
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/06/1989
Series:	Contemporary American Fiction Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Don DeLillo has written seventeen novels, including White Noise, which won the National Book Award. It was followed by Libra, his bestselling novel about the assassination of President Kennedy; Mao II, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction; and the bestselling Underworld, which in 2000 won the Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the most distinguished work of fiction published in the prior five years. In 1999, DeLillo was awarded the Jerusalem Prize, given to a writer whose work expresses the theme of freedom of the individual in society. His other books include the novels Cosmopolis, Falling Man, and Point Omega and the story collection The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories. He has also written occasional essays and three stage plays. In 2010 DeLillo became the third author to receive the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. He was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2013.

Hometown:

Westchester County, New York

Date of Birth:

November 20, 1936

Place of Birth:

New York City

Education:

Fordham University, 1958

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Nearly every sentence of Americana rings true, an insistence upon the authenticity behind the stereotypes....DeLillo is a man of frightening perception." —Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit Sunday News

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Americana:

"DeLillo's swift, ironic, and witty cross-country American nightmare doesn't have a dull or an unoriginal line." 
—Rolling Stone

"Nearly every sentence of Americana rings true, an insistence upon the authenticity behind the stereotypes . . . DeLillo is a man of frightening perception."
—Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit Sunday News

"There have been many—too-many—novels in which the protagonist tries to find himself: here is one in which he tries to lose himself."
—The New York Times

From the Publisher

In search of his roots, a successful but unhappy TV executive takes off for the heartland of America. ``This first novel is peopled with characters alienated not only from one another, but from themselves. It has the smell of staleness and despair. It is also, with its deadly accurate observations, its veracious dialogue, and its consistency of view, brilliantly written,'' maintained PW. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"Nearly every second of 'Americana' rings true, and insisted upon the authenticity becomes stereotypes....DeLillo is a man of frightened perception."

Joyce Carol Oates

"The language soars in depth, under them parts a great deal." -- New York Times

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

"Don DeLillo's swift, ironic, witty cross-country American nightmare doesn't have a dull or unoriginal line." -- Rolling Stones

Nelson Algian