Zero K

Starred review from December 14, 2015
DeLillo's 17th novel features a man arriving at a strange, remote compound (we are told the nearest city is Bishkek)—a set-up similar to a few other DeLillo books, Mao II and Ratner's Star among them. This time, the protagonist is Jeffrey Lockhart, who is joining his billionaire father, Ross, to say good-bye to Ross's second wife (and Jeffrey's stepmother), Artis. The compound is the home of the Convergence, a scientific endeavor that preserves people indefinitely; in Artis's case, it's until there's a cure for her ailing health. But as with any novel by DeLillo, our preeminent brain-needler, the plot is window dressing for his preoccupations: obsessive sallies into death, information, and all kinds of other things. Longtime readers will not be surprised that there's a two-page rumination on mannequins. But a few components elevate Zero K, which is among DeLillo's finest work. For one, DeLillo has become better about picking his spots—the asides rarely, if ever, drag, and they are consistently surprising and funny. And his focus and curiosity have moved far into the future: much of this novel's (and Ross's) attention is paid to humankind's relationship and responsibility to what's to come. What's left behind and forgotten is the present, here represented by Jeffrey, the son whom Ross abandoned when he was 13. DeLillo sneaks a heartbreaking story of a son attempting to reconnect with his father into his thought-provoking novel.

May 1, 2016

In this new work, DeLillo (Underworld; Point Omega) ruminates on a concept from his breakout 1985 novel, White Noise: "You have said goodbye to everyone but yourself. How does a person say goodbye to himself?" At the request of his father, Ross, Jeffrey Lockhart is flown to an obscure compound where his stepmother, Artis, Ross's second wife, has chosen to die. Upon arrival, he learns that Artis will be cryogenically frozen, and that Ross intends to do the same. Wandering the caverns of the compound known as Convergence, replete with looping images on screens and monks shrouded in secrecy, Jeffrey stumbles upon the true ethos of the group. Faced with the prospect of losing both Artis and Ross to a theosophical cult, he struggles to argue against his father's longing for immortality while justifying the importance of transience. VERDICT DeLillo's rich language and rhythmic prose draw readers deep into a rumination on both the inescapability and alluring possibilities of the eternal return as the protagonists push against the physical and philosophical walls of Convergence. [See Prepub Alert, 11/23/15.]--Joshua Finnell, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2016
In DeLillo's new novel, which, like Point Omega (2010), is austere in setting yet lush in thought and feeling, global financier Ross Lockhart marshals his wealth and power to fight a covert holy war against death. He summons Jeffrey, his brooding son, to join him and his second wife, Artis, an archaeologist afflicted with a debilitating disease, at the Convergence, a secret bunker/catacomb equipped with faith-based cryopreservation technology promising a future reawakening. Intently observant and obsessively concerned with language and meaning, Jeffery is a mesmerizing and disquieting narrator as he describes the eerie and disembodying ambiance of the Convergence and its ritualized, morally murky amalgam of mysticism and science, from the post-mortem decor, punctuated by unnerving sculptures and violent cinematic montages, to the sarcophagus-pods containing naked, cryopreserved voyagers to the unknown. As history-steeped Artis is prepped for her frozen journey, and Jeffrey confronts mysteries in both this high-tech tomb and cacophonous New York, DeLillo infuses the drama with metaphysical riddles: What of ourselves can actually be preserved? What will resurrection pilgrims experience in their cold limbo? With immortality reserved for the elite, what will become of the rest of humanity on our pillaged, bloodied, extinction-plagued planet? In this magnificently edgy and profoundly inquisitive tale, DeLillo reflects on what we remember and forget, what we treasure and destroy, and what we fail to do for each other and for life itself. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters added to his long list of honors, DeLillo reaffirms his standing as one of the world's most significant writers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)