Author(s): Michael Naas (Contribution by)

Literary Essays

Apocalyptic Ruin and Everyday Wonder in Don DeLillo's America is a fresh and engaging study of the "last things" in Don DeLillo's works-death, mourning, the last judgment of heaven and hell, the decline of the American empire, but also the apocalypse and the end of the world more generally. It is also about all the things that double or shadow those last things in the very same works, like the wonder of language or the radiance of everyday events. From Americana (1971) and End Zone (1972) up through Zero K (2016) and The Silence (2020), Don DeLillo has created meaning by contrasting, juxtaposing, or, as Naas calls it here, "contrabanding" first and last things, conflicting or opposing forces such as life and death, creation and destruction, consumption and waste, everyday wonder and apocalyptic ruin, the origins of language and the end of the world. Michael Naas untangles complex themes in short, witty chapters that highlight and celebrate DeLillo's inventive and playful writing, employing a novel approach to literary criticism. Making no use of secondary sources, the book is entirely a discussion of DeLillo's work, accessible to any level of readership. In his adept demonstration of how DeLillo has returned repeatedly to these "last things," Naas shows how the works of Don DeLillo have been there for over a half a century now to remind us of this one simple yet profound truth: nothing lasts forever.