Mao II
This: “He […] could feel a slowness come upon him, familiar though never felt before […] deeply and totally known” (216). 1
And this: “They show the great state portrait in the deep distance and she is pretty sure there is no wart in Andy’s drawing” (178).
Or how about this: “In other words a series of open-mouth antics with a strutting component” (173).
Let’s not forget: “Then there was the finger Bill had received in the mail. He kept it around a while, a ring finger he guessed, …” (197).
Maybe mostly: “… the champagne came sluicing …” (211).
“Sluicing.”
Say that again: “sluicing.”
Slower: “slooooo siiiiiing.”
Oh yes.
I’m so happy we got to see Don DeLillo speak when he was here at SLU (sing? sorry. couldn’t be helped.) a few years ago. He was amazing. Oddly, smaller than I expected. I guess he looks taller and bigger in the head shots on his books. ??? Anyway.
You should just read Mao II: A Novel* by Don DeLillo. Heck, you should read everything he’s ever written (note to self).
I’m pretty nearly finished with Mao II. The language is so… artful. That’s the word I need. Artful. Just amazingly artful. The dialogs are perfect. The way you are inside a character’s head, but not shoved there, more like sucked there, but almost imperceptibly. It. Is. Just. Beautiful.
And there’s sluicing.
1 I left out parts of the quote because I didn’t want to be a spoiler. It’s in a pretty moving part of the book. When you get there, you’ll see. And really, it’s better with everything in it, but I think what I left does some justice to it, still.