By the end of the novel, we have gone full-circle we start at the baseball game in 1951, fast-forward to the 1990s, and then work our way back to 1951 again. One of the most striking aspects of Underworld's narrative is its sprawling, nonlinear structure.

Why is the Prologue titled 'The Triumph of Death?' How does its gritty, 'you're-in-the-ballpark' tone compare to the tone of the first chapter? Do you think the Prologue could stand alone as a short story? Discuss your opinions of it: its construction, its language, its use of real-life in a tale of fiction.

Few books boast a more brilliantly conceived Prologue than Underworld.

Identify these themes of duality and discuss how they're rendered by DeLillo.

As Underworld's cover photo represents, there are many 'twin forces' explored in this book.

Do you agree with the prison psychiatrist who tells young Nick Shay that 'we all have a history we are responsible to?' Discuss other 'underworld' themes in the book.

But it also alludes to the 'underworld' that lives within each of us, the fusing of our memories, emotions, and personal histories that make us who we are. 'Underworld' can refer to many different facets of this book, such as the labyrinthine subways that wind beneath New York City, or the underground art scenes frequented by Klara and her friends.Edgar Hoover, Bobby Thompson, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason and Toots Shor, “this is DeLillo’s most affecting novel…a dazzling, phosphorescent work of art” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). With cameo appearances by Lenny Bruce, J. The glorious outcome - the home run that wins the game is called the Shot Heard Round the World - shades into the grim news that the Soviet Union has just tested an atomic bomb. It is a novel that accepts every challenge of these extraordinary times - Don DeLillo's greatest and most powerful work of fiction.ĭon DeLillo's mesmerizing novel opens with a legendary baseball game played in New York in 1951. Underworld is a story of men and women together and apart, seen in deep, clear detail and in stadium-sized panoramas, shadowed throughout by the overarching conflict of the Cold War. A finalist for the National Book Award, Underworld is Don DeLillo’s most powerful and riveting novel-“a great American novel, a masterpiece, a thrilling page-turner” ( San Francisco Chronicle).

Don delillo underworld cover