DeLillo doesn't make mistakes but it is certainly interesting to read a book of his that felt intentionally quite minimal from a stylistic perspective. One of his greatest strengths as a writer is the contrast he affects between his ornate prose and the Bronx tough guy dialogue turned into sparse deadpan. To be missing the former makes the latter stand out in an odd way, but with this book in particular it felt right.

Déception, c'est ce qui caractérise le mieux ce bouquin; déception personnelle, parce que je voulais l'aimer ce polar déjanté tendance complots véreux par des politiciens vicieux sur fond de sulfure avec son film porno nazi, je voulais apprécier ma découverte de l'univers de Don Delillo; déception parce que tous les personnages semblent constamment déçus, coupés dans leurs élans à cause de leurs propres rouages, semblant à côté de leurs pompes constamment -comme le personnage de Selvyn, sorte d'agent de liaison ancien militaire qui se laisse aller-, et enfin déception littéraire car rien ne semble particulièrement relevé, les dialogues sont particulièrement embrouillants sans jamais sembler être un puzzle à reconstruire, ou sous-jacents d'un certain propos qui pourrait étayer l’œuvre comme chez Bret Easton Ellis 10 ans plus tard, attaquant lui aussi la société consumériste et déshumanisée par sa bourgeoisie, étant en plus le moyen principal d'avancer la narration

"Who do you work for?" Selvy said.
"Running Dog" she said.
He paused briefly.
"One-time organ of discontent."
"We were fairly radical, yes."
"Now safely established in the main-
stream."
"I wouldn't say safely."
"Part of the ever-expanding middle."
"We say 'fuck' all the time."
"My point exactly."

3.5, but Goodreads doesn’t do decimals.

Running Dog finds Don DeLillo in transition from an acolyte of Lot 49 to the pure rhythmic prosescapes of his later masterworks, where he is perfectly positioned in the transcendent space between quotidian musing and, well, death. While the novel seems to anticipate themes of both White Noise and Mao II, it largely concerns itself with the postmodern quest for truth and its relation to history that occupies Thomas Pynchon's landmark novels of the 60s and 70s.

When DeLillo is firing on all cylinders, his writing is some of the smoothest I've ever encountered and there are moments of that here, the tryst between protagonists Moll and Selvy, the viewing of a purported pornographic film reel. These scenes seem to seep into your consciousness like gas and embody you. In other areas, Running Dog is a little rougher. There are too many characters for DeLillo to handle (again feelings of Pynchon, of trying to rise to that grand conspiratorial spectacle), and his pacing is not quite honed. There are moments that seem to drag far more than they should.

But Running Dog is not a bad book. It's dark and clever and curious about the nature of life and death and memory and history. DeLillo is also one of my favorite writers of sex, able to tap into the metaphysical aspect of the act in a way that none of his male contemporaries ever could. In the end, the author carves out a theses on truth that is wholly unique. "Truth is a disappointment," he writes. "You'll only be disappointed." It's a sentiment that seems accurate and sad, but somehow not cynical, beautiful even, a feat of DeLillo's so dexterous, I'm still scratching my head how he pulled it off. What sleight of hand.

‚„Wenn Blödsinn Musik wäre, wären Sie eine Blaskapelle.“‘

2 1/2 stars

The small bedroom looked out on a vacant lot that might have been a Zen garden of rubbish. Cosmic Erotics

That’s not part of the secret. That’s a different secret. Radial Matrix

Note: Icart, Hokusai, Balthus, the Kangra school, Botero , Egon Schiele, Hans Bellmer, Tom Wesselmann, Clara Tice

“Half the things in our house my mom made out of old feed sacks. Dish towels, face towels, napkins, even a lot of our clothes. Pillow cases. Feed sack pillow cases. Feed sack dresses and skirts.”
“Recycling.”
“Poverty,” she said. Radial Matrix

He wanted company. Human warmth. An interpreter of the meaning of his fear. Marathon Mines

Of course he expected to be recognized. It was his house and his party. Marathon Mines

Once they see you don’t mind dying, they’re in serious trouble and know it. Marathon Mines

Vietnam, in more ways than one, was a war based on hybrid gibberish. But Mudger could understand the importance of this on the most basic of levels, the grunt level, where the fighting man stood and where technical idiom was often the only element of precision, the only true beauty, he could take with him into the realms of ambiguity. Marathon Mines

Lightborne es un cutre pero educado comerciante de erótica Bric-à-brac que se entera de la existencia de una película pornográfica rodada dentro del búnker del Führer, los días previos a la caída deBerlín, en 1945 y que tiene como protagonista, ni más ni menos, que a Hitler. Nadie parece haber visto la película, pero las especulaciones son altas, y Lightborne intenta vender la cinta en varias direcciones a la vez. Diversos personajes pululan alrededor de este enigmático film, mafiosos, un senador codicioso, un espía de la CIA, marchantes de arte y una periodista que trabaja para una revista radical llamada Running Dog.

Seix Barral ha hecho el esfuerzo de recuperar una de las novelas más difíciles de encontrar de Don Delillo, debido a su temática morbosa desde la ficción más policíaca, sin embargo la novela avanza desprovista de relieve y deteriora poco a poco el interés por dicha cinta encubierta. Su lectura es rápida, pero su trama apagada.

Siento decir que en esta obra, Delillo, no consigue suscitar la fascinación, la alucinación ni la atracción irresistible que propagó en Submundo, Libra, Punto Omega o Body Art. Entiendo que todo este material fue el precursor de Libra, donde su narrativa adquiere la fuerza de un ciclón, al investigar el asesinato de JFK, con toda su crudeza. Fascinación es tan sutil que pierde todo el contacto potencial con las virtudes, la gravedad y la agitación de su tesis ficcionada. Cuenta Delillo, que la escribió muy rápido.

Fuente: https://huracanesenpapel.blogspot.com...

A fantastic paranoid thriller with enough philosophy and clipped non-sequiturs to keep it firmly within Delillo's 70s remit.

But, seriously, I wish there were a British novelist writing like this now. Intelligent, entertaining political thrillers that actually show how sickos in power operate.

It's no "White Noise" or "Underworld," but this is still a pretty good early novel by DeLillo, more or less a literary thriller.

I have seen books by Delillo everywhere and had never read anything he has written. I was out of books and I decided to splurge and buy myself this novel of intrigue and mystery. I found it utterly impossible to read. His style was lost on me and I found it muddled and confusing. Despite being one of the shortest books I’ve tackled this year, Running Dog took me forever to finish. The story revolves around a journalist trying to uncover the identity of the buyer of lost Nazi sex tapes. Good premise, I guess. Some of the characters were great and the scenes crafted were obviously genius at times, but the ending was a dud and I felt like he made the reader decipher what was going on too many times.

You we're leaping through burning hoops for a better America

Dizzying, paranoid and totally insane, almost to the point of incomprehension. When it makes sense, its moody and funny, managing to really get at the lifeless world of DC politics and contemporary American intelligence complex? When it doesn't make sense, and DeLillo really goes in on his bullshit, its still a fun and beautifully written noir story!

(Taken from a friend, who took it from a friend)

2.5stars.
Felt a lil all over the place for me.
*Meh*
2019 reading challenge- A book with a two-word title