"Cosmopolis" by Don DeLillo

“Cosmopolis” by Don DeLillo is a story about the powers of greed, lust and revenge as seen through the eyes of post-modern nostalgia and technology obsession. Written in DeLillo’s characteristically poetic and often harmonic lyrical tone, the story is wrapped up in certain sadness and longing after the basic human emotions lost in a society stricken by the plague of information technology, heartless bits of 1’s and 0’s, media driven global financial markets and of course the demonic obsession with money.

The pages seem soaked in this cold blue neon light of radiating motion, of brutal cause and effect relationships, of sorrowful physiological weaknesses. At the center sits a powerful yet uncharacteristically young broker who proceeds to gamble away his fortune against the movements of the Japanese yen (against his instincts and nature) from the comfort of his mobile office (his limousine).

The book is worth exploring, if not for the story, for its honest and open narrative that does not cringe or retract when exposing the shameful but realistic qualities of the human physique. I recommend this book for those readers who are interested in DeLillo’s unforgettable language talent.

- by Simon Cleveland