#Friday56 & #BookBeginnings: Zero K


For Book Beginnings:
Everybody wants to own the end of the world.
- p. 3 (ARC, page may change)

For Friday 56:
The room in the long empty hall. The chair, the bed, the bare walls, the low ceiling. Sitting in the room and then wandering the halls I could myself lapsing into my smallest self, all the vainglorious ideas around me shrunk into personal reverie because what am I in this place but someone in need of self-defense.
- p. 56 (ARC, page may change)

Synopsis of Zero K by Don DeLilloJeffrey Lockhart's father, Ross, is a billionaire in his sixties, with a younger wife, Artis Martineau, whose health is failing. Ross is the primary investor in a remote and secret compound where death is exquisitely controlled and bodies are preserved until a future time when biomedical advances and new technologies can return them to a life of transcendent promise. Jeff joins Ross and Artis at the compound to say "an uncertain farewell" to her as she surrenders her body. "We are born without choosing to be. Should we have to die in the same manner? Isn't it a human glory to refuse to accept a certain fate?" These are the questions that haunt the novel and its memorable characters, and it is Ross Lockhart, most particularly, who feels a deep need to enter another dimension and awake to a new world. For his son, this is indefensible. Jeff, the book's narrator, is committed to living, to experiencing "the mingled astonishments of our time, here, on earth." Don DeLillo's seductive, spectacularly observed and brilliant new novel weighs the darkness of the world-terrorism, floods, fires, famine, plague-against the beauty and humanity of everyday life; love, awe, "the intimate touch of earth and sun."

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Just came in the mail for me for review consideration. I've never read any of DeLillo's work so can yo blame me that I'm a little intimidated? Have you read anything by DeLillo?

19 comments

  1. Sounds powerful and fascinating. Thanks for sharing, and enjoy. Here's mine: ”THE
    PRICE OF SALT”

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  2. Julie @ Reading LifeFebruary 26, 2016 at 9:02 PM

    It sounds a little intimidating to me, too! Here's mine Friday

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  3. Visiting from Friday 56.

    The same debate rages today. Sounds interesting...and controversial! :O)

    Here's my Friday 56!

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  4. That beginning though.... omg. When you think about it, it's probably true. The 56 and that wonderful descriptive writing puts you right in that room. I bet this is quite a good read.
    Happy weekend!

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  5. I guess we will see if I can ease myself into this :)

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  6. So true .. I've heard wonderful things about DeLillo so I have to psyche myself up for this read!

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  7. It's pretty intense. Hence my apprehension! Have a great one, Freda :)

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  8. Interesting beginning! DeLillo is sooooooo hard for me though. So hard. I try.

    Thanks for always participating in BBOF!

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  9. What did you read that so hard? I haven't read anything of his yet but each time I pick up one of his books, I kind of quake in my boots! I try too ... let's see how this one goes :) Thanks for hosting as always, Gilion.

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  10. Underworld almost killed me dead. Cosmopolis almost finished the job. I haven't been able to face any since.

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  11. Maybe I'll stay away from those titles then :P

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  12. I haven't heard of the author, but based on this I'm intrigued. :)

    Check out my Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings).

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  13. The cover makes me think this could be creepy...then I read the blurb and that confirmed it. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
    sherry @ fundinmental Friday Memes

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  14. Woahhh! This sounds intense. But really fascinating! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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  15. "Everybody wants to own the end of the world." Hmmm. Interesting start; not sure what's meant by wanting to own the end of the world. Don't think I want to be part of that crowd. :) Good choice!
    @dino0726 from
    FictionZeal - Impartial, Straightforward Fiction Book Reviews

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  16. He's an intriguing author -- it's only just now I'm actually going to read any of his work! So you and me both ;)

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  17. I don't think it's a particularly cheery bunch ...

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© guiltless readingMaira Gall