Splinters

Bookmunch have a review of Cosmopolis, the next Don Delillo, not out til May apparently. I haven't read the last two, and from what the review tells me, it doesn't seem like I'll be drooling at the bookshop door come Summer. However, it says it isn't the ?first great post-9/11 American novel" so it has something going for it! What would the purpose of such a novel be anyway if not only to fuel a marketing campaign?

Perhaps a "post-9/11 American novel" might be defined as that which signals the end of what James Wood has called Hysterical Realism (unfortunately, you need to register with the NYT). He says Delillo is the master, and has influenced a thousand novels "ashamed of silence" whilst pursuing "vitality at all costs". One example is Zadie Smith's latest, which Wood parodies in his review in the LRB. I've posted this one before, but it's worth catching if you missed it the first time.