Underworld (novel)

Underworld (novel)
source
Name	Underworld
Author	Don DeLillo
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Scribner
Pub date	1997
Media type	Print
Pages	827
Isbn	9780684854363

Underworld (novel) is a 1997 novel by Don DeLillo that interweaves multiple narratives across the second half of the twentieth century, examining American culture through events such as the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War. The novel links characters to historical episodes like the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers–New York Giants rivalry and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant anxieties about nuclear waste, mapping private lives onto public crises. DeLillo's prose connects threads involving baseball, nuclear fear, art, and media, drawing attention from critics, scholars, and institutions including the National Book Critics Circle and the Pulitzer Prize jury.

Plot

The plot circles around a single emblematic object, a stolen baseball from the 1951 National League playoff contested by the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, and follows its trajectory through a web of characters linked to events such as the 1954 Army–McCarthy hearings, the Soviet Union–United States proxy tensions, and the urban transformations of New York City. Parallel storylines trace the life of a waste-hauler and archivist intertwined with a woman connected to a man who monitors nuclear fears at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant sites and similar facilities, while memories of the Korean War and the Bay of Pigs Invasion surface in characters' pasts. Scenes shift between settings like The Bronx, Long Island, and suburban enclaves, juxtaposing moments at art openings featuring references to the Museum of Modern Art with tableau invoking the Senate Committee on Government Operations and televised spectacles on networks such as NBC and CBS. The narrative culminates in convergences that dramatize the consequences of secrecy and public spectacle during crises including the Cuban Missile Crisis and later Cold War standoffs.

Characters

Major characters include a figure who once played a role in the 1951 playoff and becomes haunted by loss and fame linked to the Brooklyn Dodgers, a woman whose connections draw her into conversations about nuclear materials and the Manhattan Project legacy, and an archivist who curates popular culture artifacts with reverence for institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. Secondary figures engage with people from institutions such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and labor organizations analogous to the United Auto Workers. Several characters' arcs intersect with artists and intellectuals associated with venues like the Whitney Museum of American Art and universities including Columbia University and Harvard University. The ensemble includes ex-military veterans shaped by experiences in theaters linked to the Vietnam War and bureaucrats influenced by policies from the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Themes and motifs

DeLillo explores themes of memory, history, and media saturation, invoking events like the Watergate scandal and the cultural impact of televised occurrences such as the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Motifs include baseball as emblematic of collective memory and commodity culture tied to companies similar to Spalding and marketplaces represented by entities like the New York Stock Exchange. Nuclear anxiety recurs through references to the Manhattan Project and debates over repositories like the Yucca Mountain proposals, while art and popular culture are signaled by allusions to the Abstract Expressionism movement and personalities associated with the Beat Generation. The novel interrogates how institutions—courts exemplified by the Supreme Court of the United States, legislatures like the United States Congress, and media conglomerates such as The New York Times Company—shape personal identity and public memory.

Publication history

Published in 1997 by Scribner in the United States, the novel followed DeLillo's earlier works that had been recognized by awards such as the National Book Award and nominations from organizations including the Man Booker Prize committees in discussion. The first edition circulated in trade paperback and hardcover, was marketed through outlets tied to publishers connected with Random House, and was reviewed in periodicals like The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Academic interest led to critical essays in journals hosted by universities such as Yale University, Princeton University, and Oxford University presses, with numerous scholarly monographs appearing in subsequent years.

Reception and legacy

Critically acclaimed, the novel received the National Book Critics Circle Award and was shortlisted in conversations about major literary prizes including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker International Prize retrospectives. Reviewers from outlets like The New York Times Book Review and commentators at public institutions including the Library of Congress praised its ambitious scope and intertextuality, while some critics invoked comparisons to works by Thomas Pynchon, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In academia, it has generated scholarship connecting DeLillo's work to studies on the Cold War culture and media theory associated with scholars from institutions such as New York University and the London School of Economics.

Adaptations and influences

While not adapted directly into a major motion picture by studios such as Warner Bros. or Paramount Pictures, the novel influenced filmmakers, playwrights, and composers who referenced its imagery in projects showcased at festivals like the Sundance Film Festival and institutions such as the Lincoln Center. Literary influence is observable in subsequent novels by authors affiliated with presses including Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Knopf, and in critical theory appearing in journals published by the Modern Language Association and the American Comparative Literature Association. The novel's cultural footprint extends to exhibitions at museums like the Guggenheim Museum and to curricula at universities including Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.

Category:1997 novels Category:Novels by Don DeLillo Category:American novels