Mao II
A Novel
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4.2 • 37 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • A profound novel about art, terror, masses, and the individual, from the National Book Award–winning author of White Noise, “one of the most ironic, intelligent, grimly funny voices to comment on life in present-day America” (The New York Times)
“This novel’s a beauty. A vision as bold and a voice as eloquent and morally focused as any in American writing.”—Thomas Pynchon
Bill Gray, a famous, reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when he becomes the key figure in an event staged to force the release of a poet hostage in Beirut. As Bill enters the world of political violence, a nightscape of Semtex explosives and hostages locked in basement rooms, his dangerous passage leaves two people stranded: his brilliant, fixated assistant, Scott, and the strange young woman who is Scott’s lover—and Bill’s.
An extraordinary novel about words and images, novelists and terrorists, the mass mind and the arch-individualist, Mao II is the work of an ingenious writer at the height of his powers.
Customer Reviews
Eh
Disjointed, inconsistent, vignette-ish, a literary collage. Often flat and allegorical in a rambling manner. Weak on female characters, like Franzen. All that said, flashes of good stuff, mostly when he's writing about himself. I've also read White Noise and want to read more DD. Would like a bit more plot, less internal rambling from this author and I think he's better at meta subject matter than he is as a storyteller. A journalist writing fiction, if you will.