Point Omega, by Don Delillo
Synopsis:
In the middle of a desert ‘somewhere south of nowhere’, to a forlorn house made of metal and clapboard, a secret war adviser has gone in search of space and time. Richard Elster, seventy-three, was a scholar – an outsider – when he was called to a meeting with government war planners. For two years he tried to make intellectual sense of the troop deployments, counterinsurgency, orders for rendition. He was to map the reality these men were trying to create.
At the end of his service, Elster retreats to the desert, where he is joined by a young filmmaker intent on documenting his experience. Jim Finley wants to make a one-take film, Elster its single character – ‘Just a man against a wall.’
The two men sit on the deck, drinking and talking. Finley makes the case for his film. Weeks go by. And then Elster’s daughter Jessie visits – an ‘otherworldly’ woman from New York – who dramatically alters the dynamic of the story. When a devastating event follows, all the men’s talk, the accumulated meaning of conversation and isolation, is thrown into question. What is left is loss, fierce and incomprehensible.
Review:
Another first experience with an author. Based on this book alone I like Delillo's style. The conversations between Elster and Finley are exceptionally crafted. Elster's probing thoughts on war and life are, at the very least, interest, and, at their best, mind boggling. Delillo manages to expertly twist seemingly banal situations into insights into the feelings and thoughts of his characters, and, by extension, forces the reader to ponder those same issues.
This quotation from near the beginning of the book is highly applicable: "The less there was to see, the harder he looked, the more he saw."
4/5