From one of
the greatest writers of our time, his first collection of short stories,
written between 1979 and 2011, chronicling—and foretelling—three decades of
American life. Set in Greece, the Caribbean, Manhattan, a white-collar prison and outer
space, these nine stories are a mesmerizing introduction to Don DeLillo’s
iconic voice, from the rich, startling, jazz-infused rhythms of his early work
to the spare, distilled, monastic language of the later stories. In
“Creation,” a couple at the end of a cruise somewhere in the West
Indies can’t get off the island—flights canceled, unconfirmed
reservations, a dysfunctional economy. In “Human Moments in World War III,” two
men orbiting the earth, charged with gathering intelligence and reporting to
Colorado Command, hear the voices of American radio, from a half century
earlier. In the title story, Sisters Edgar and Grace, nuns working the violent
streets of the South Bronx, confirm the
neighborhood’s miracle, the apparition of a dead child, Esmeralda. Nuns, astronauts,
athletes, terrorists and travelers, the characters in The Angel Esmeralda
propel themselves into the world and define it. DeLillo’s sentences are
instantly recognizable, as original as the splatter of Jackson Pollock or the
luminous rectangles of Mark Rothko. These nine stories describe an
extraordinary journey of one great writer whose prescience about world events
and ear for American language changed the literary landscape.
