I'm not sure how to even write about his book. Here's the thing. It seems like DeLillo is riffing on Baudrillard (Simulacra and Simulation; America) but this work predates those pieces by ten and fifteen years, respectively. Is DeLillo a time-travelling, shape-shifting, postmodern sherpa or is Americana a prescient fever dream? Hard to tell.

Some impressions: Bret Easton Ellis likely owes his entire career to DeLillo; most certainly, either Alan Ball or Sam Mendes (or both) took some inspiration from Americana in the making of American Beauty. There's the cadence of the conversation between David and Ted Warburton in part one; the protagonist (David/Lester) ditches corporate consumerism in order to find meaning; Ricky's use of the camera as mediator between himself and "reality;" and, finally, can there be any doubt of the similarity between the opening sequence of the film where Carolyn is trimming the roses and David looking out on virtually the same scene from his hotel room?

I'll be processing this for a while. Anyway, the first two parts of the novel are easily 5-star material. I am ambivalent about parts 3 & 4, but I feel that DeLillo means to discomfit the reader, so I guess that's something? I'll give it 4 stars with the caveat that the book is a frustrating experience but worthwhile in its ambition.

Excellent novel, very well written - early DeLillo, so in some ways underdeveloped, mostly because it seems to yearn to be a much longer novel, but Americana succeeds nonetheless.

Kind of reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis, if Bret Easton Ellis attempted to justify his characters' crude, vapid existences. Which is almost worse...

But there were some good moments. I really liked the protagonist's father's take on growing a beard.

I thoroughly enjoyed Americana. Bit weird and a touch pretentious at times, but that added to it if anything. DeLillo is definitely one of my favourite authors. The overall commentary on the contemporary US is fantastic (definitely holds up today), DeLillo's ability to break down the American national psyche and identity is incredible. Highly recommend this book.

I've taken a bit of a break from reading books, but this one. This one was a great novel to plunge into, head first (not realling, I knew exactly what I was jumping). Delillo is one of the first, great American, literary novelists who made me WANT to write. I still remember when I was 17 reading MAO II from a small, military library and being absolutely blown away by every paragraph. The novel practically pulsed in my hands. I felt somethhing alive in the words and something that was both dangerous and almost explosive to the touch.

Now, almost 25-years later, DeLillo's first novel jumps from a quasi-normal narrative to almost a prose poem, from Mad Men to David Lynch. It is funky, infinitely quotable, and haunting in its strange awareness and paranoia. It is like Don Delillo wanted to describe a documentary of America verbally, but grew unsatisfied in just telling you what he was seeing. Soon, he switched to describing what America was saying/singing. After that he was licking the Acetate off the Super 16 and describing the trip. Funky.

I'm taking a road trip with my brother (a writer), his friend (a documentary filmaker and former CIA agent), and another freind (a literary American writer of both fiction and nonfiction) later this summer. I was teasing my brother that during the trip, I was going to literally EAT the author's book, page-by-page, while traveling with him on this road trip through the West. Perhaps, I need to switch books and eat 'Americana'. Our road trip is starting and ending in Dallas. Love Field. I feel like my Summer of 2017 started and will eventually end with the taste of 'Americana' in my mouth.ding in Dallas. Love Field. I feel like my Summer of 2017 started and will eventually end with the taste of 'Americana' in my mouth.

Americana was the first book Don Delillo had published and whilst I can see his distinctive style it is less polished than later books like White Noise. Overall whilst I found this interesting to read and in particular am always intrigued by the dialogue of his novels, Cosmopolis and White Noise are both better (White Noise significantly so).

What was interesting to me was how much this book's protagonist reminded me of Patrick Bateman, the central character of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. There is the same vanity and disconnect in David Bell as there is in Bateman. There is a similar detachment, self-assuredness, sexual aggression and also an attention to material surroundings that throughout reading put me in mind of American Psycho; even the titles of the books are very similar. However, looking at first publication dates Delillo had this published in 1971; American Psycho's date is 1991. Whether there is any true resemblance - whether Bret Easton Ellis was inspired by this or whether I am simply seeing similarities in some coincidences - David Bell is the more interesting and thought-provoking of the two.

This is an ok read - maybe better to read than American Psycho, but worse than White Noise.

This book is like Mad-Men meets American Psycho. My favorite parts of this book are some incredible passages, like a party for his parents' he attends, and a part where he's calling all sorts of people up on the phone, were the narrative just races in a hilarious way. He's bopping back and forth, so sarcastic and witty but he just flies. And this isn't one of those prose poem books where it's hard to figure out what the heck is actually happening but written in a fairly straightforward literal manner, which makes it accessible and fun.

The plot concerns a Mad-Men esque character (and make no mistake, much of the references are very dated from the 70s), who talks about himself a lot and his history. I mean there is a threadbare plot about taking a road trip out west but most of the story is centered on the protagonist's life, in New York, and his history (like how he grew up).

As I said before, I really liked the writing. He sometimes reaches for the profound, which doesn't always succeed, but the best parts are the sarcastic and the ironic.