Point Omega (2010) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 0 stars

“A long-time fan of De Lilo, I could not resist this book. I'm not disappointed, a low-key condensed narrative, each page pregnant with meaning. Not an easy read though...”

• Rated 4 stars

“A brief footnote of a novel, to supplement DeLillo's masterwork, "Underworld", this is a deep reflection on the nature and destiny of mankind. Short, weird, brutal, worthwhile.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Apparently this book is about one of the planners of the Iraq War, well after its inception but before it was finished. I actually had to read other reviews to find out what it was about. Candidly, it was beyond me. Thank goodness it was short.”

• Rated 3 stars

“I'm on the fence on this novella. A discussion with some college friends on Teilhard De Chardin (whose Omega Point concept was DeLillo's inspiration for this) led me back to try the author after many years. Ironically, you spend the whole time looking for the "point" of the two different narratives. But the storytelling, characters and descriptions of both the desert retreat setting, and of the NY performance art, are all worth it. Maybe the only element missing is a sense of time and conclusion, and maybe that's the point.”

• Rated 2 stars

“I found this to be an unsatisfying read. I think perhaps it needed more of a resolution considering the actual plot held so little substance.

Even after finishing the book I couldn't decide whether or not I actually liked or admired the writing. This is the first DeLillo I've read so I'll probably read another before forming any opinion.”

• Rated 4 stars

“It's an incredibly short "novel" (it's a novella, weird marketing), that really takes its time to breathe. The opening Anonymity section made me not want to continue, but it feels extremely important by the time the book is over. It's philosophical--and doesn't hide it--but it really works. It's doing the thing Delillo has done for me before, but packaging it in way that worked really well for me right now. That's vague--it's 117 pages, just read it for yourself.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Good read, but takes a moment to get into the story.”

• Rated 4 stars

“The Omega Point is the transcendent, eternal pinnacle of consciousness toward which the universe is evolving in Christian theology. Point Omega is a dense and thought provoking novella by Don DeLillo. A struggling filmmaker and a corrupted intellectual are holed up in a desert retreat, talking about making a film and hiding from time. When the retired professor's daughter shows up to join them, at first it seems to preserve the delicate balance of their relationship, but then things turn much darker. DeLillo uses his characters to examine the complex and fragile intellectual insulation we use to protect our selves from the infinite.”

• Rated 3 stars

“It only takes an hour and twenty minutes to read and that's an hour and twenty minutes everyone should spend. I don't think this is the greatest book -- either DeLillo's greatest or the greatest in general -- but I do think it's an incisive, demure little narrative about aesthetics and cosmology and relationships (are these things all the same?) that is well worth experiencing. Especially since it's DeLillo -- no one else could have made this work.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Another fine work by Delillo. It shows our need (whether acknowledged or not) of finding our starting and ending points. Whirling through the cosmos of daily life and wondering how important we (and our ideas) ultimately are.”