The Names (Paperback)

by Don DeLillo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
James Axton is an American free-lance writer working out of Athens as a part-time "risk analyst" for a shadowy conglomerate selling political-risk insurance, mostly to large companies fearful of having a foreign base of operations collapse on them (just as Iran is doing right then, in the novel). His wife Kathryn lives separated from him, with their precocious son Tap, in primitive conditions on a Greek island; and James' Athens social life consists mostly of the cafe-society of sharp and jaded Americans like himself, not bohemians but business-people schooled in the multinational machinations of large banks, in airline etiquette, in "the humor of personal humiliation." In the book's best scene, for instance, James seduces (by means of urgently lewd and pressuring talk) a young corporate wife who has just performed a salaciously innocent belly-dance exhibition at a party. And as long as DeLillo stays within this class of the edgy and expatriate, bis novel is fine - gritty and adhesive. But then, as he has done in other fiction, DeLillo introduces a cloudy, false-seeming thriller element, one with obvious metaphorical intent, but little inherent (or even coherent) suspense: James, along with a gratuitous film-director-friend character, winds up trailing a murder cult from Greece to Jordan to India, a cult which kills individuals whose names line up, in initials, to those words inscribed on a holy stone. And, as before, one senses DeLillo's lack of genuine interest in his plot, his far greater commitment to philosophical digressions: "A freedom, an escape from the condition of ideal balance. Normal understanding is surpassed, the self and its machinery obliterated. Is this what innocence is? Is it the language of innocence these people spoke, words flying out of them like spat stones? The deep past of men, the transparent word." The central motif here, then, is the essentially semantic nature of reality; and the larger theme is, as usual with DeLillo, the foulness of modern life - its sullying, cheapening progress. But while other DeLillo books (even the weaker ones) have presented that theme with an insistent, disturbing blade of glittering scorn, this time there's more somber meditation . . . while only a few scenes flare. And so, though a great talent remains on display in those glimpses of plastic/expatriate lifestyle, this ambitious essay-novel is characteristically uneven - and un-characteristically dullish as well. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Takes place in the time of the Iranian revolution in Greece, the Middle East and India. An American risk analyst becomes obsessed by news of a ritual murder and is drawn to search for clues--a journey that takes over everything else in his life.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (July 17, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679722955
• ISBN-13: 978-0679722953
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are They Killing Americans There?, July 22, 2001

By	Jon G. Jackson "j_dog_jackson" (Santa Rosa, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First, let me ask you...how many languages do you speak? That question will take on a whole new meaning once you've read this book. The story (and there *is* one) centers around a group of American and British expatriates living and working in Greece (where DeLillo lived for a while before writing this novel). It was the last of his early novels...meaning the next one was WHITE NOISE, at which point DeLillo started to become famous. Yet, THE NAMES still remains one of my favorites. Yes, it was followed by three truly *excellent* novels (WHITE NOISE, LIBRA, and MAO II), and (after several years) by an undisputedly GREAT novel (UNDERWORLD). But, here we have DeLillo still paying his dues...and paying them remarkably well, too. In this one, he finally brought together the various disparate themes of his earlier works, and he solidified his "outsider in society" motif. It was the first of DeLillo's novels I read, and it made me an instant devotee.

So...how many languages do you speak? These expatriates I mentioned come in contact with a bizarre language cult which is responsible for a series of ritual murders in the area. Our "hero" is James Axton, a "risk analyst" who isn't exactly sure himself just who he's working for (i.e., business insurance...or CIA?). In fact, he's pretty much detached from most things in his life...his ex-marriage, his friends, Greece itself, the cult (when he finally meets them)...you name it. The Outsider. Wishing he could be part of something...never able to get past the *analysis* of risk. His inaction leads to serious consequences.

As always, DeLillo's intense use of language ultimately leads to something nonverbal. It's interesting to me that he seems to have most successfully achieved this in THE NAMES, which so persistently circles around issues related to language. DeLillo has said that he writes his works one sentence at a time, paying as much attention to the nonverbal elements as to the verbal. He hears the rhythm of the words, the prosody of sound, and he studies the shapes of the words on the page. If something's not right, he says, he'll change a word...even if it means changing the meaning of the sentence. Thus, language becomes the driving force of the story. Thus, DeLillo says, writing becomes a religious experience. If you don't know what he means by this, maybe THE NAMES will give you a clue. It's contemporary American writing at its best!

And, by the way...how many languages do you speak? And where are you from? Are they killing Americans there?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good primer for the later stuff, July 6, 2002

By	Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Delillo would get better, but those later novels prove that these early novels weren't some kind of weird writing fluke, while the novels from this period prove that he didn't exactly come out of nowhere. All of the classic elements of Delillo are already in place, the razor sharp prose that forms intricate and effortless rhythms where you think the words were always supposed to fall together that way, while the dialogue snaps back and forth like a live wire, even when the characters are talking languidly, and the characters themselves, both sharply defined and vaguely drawn, studies in contrasts. The plot here has something to do with language and a cult that is killing people for reasons that might have to do with language, while "risk analyist" James Axton ponders being separated from his wife and what all this travelling really means. What does it mean? It means the reader get a very meditative novel, carried along mostly by shifting from character study to character study, from observation to observation. For the most part it's a joy just watching everyone interact, the cult plot for the most part never becomes more than secondary and in fact most of the plot is secondary, you get more of a sense that you're peeking in on the lives of real (and very flawed) people. If Delillo wasn't such a master at crafting prose then all of this would come across as highly boring but he can make the descriptions of even the most static scenes and the most mundane thoughts crackle with a strange kind of energy, where behind the flat events sparks a vital sort of life. Probably more experienced than actually read, and not something for people who are expecting an exotic suspense thriller along the lines of what's currently in the movies (though it is exotic and you do get a good feel for the countries that are visited) it's for those who admire charactization and insightful prose over deft plotting . . . Delillo would sharpen all of these traits even further later on but if you want to see where it all came from and how it all started, this novel is one of the places to begin to look.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fascination from a distance, April 20, 2001

By	Jim Shine (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

There are, I suppose, two reasons we keep turning the pages: the plot and the prose. The most commercially popular authors tend to focus on the former, the critically acclaimed on the latter. It's a joy to find a book in which the two are successfully combined. In my view, The Names - my first Delillo book - comes close but never quite makes it. Certainly the prose is magnificent, and Delillo is a master of creating an atmosphere. And certainly the milieu is intriguing: here is the Middle East in one of its more tumultuous periods, Greece both old and new, a world of risk and uncertainty. The characters are less interesting, having that quality of being something off which ideas are bounced rather than living beings round whom the story twists. And the plot? Well, the plot, in as much as you can say there is a single plot, is intriguing too, but the reader is always at one remove. We are not involved in the deciphering of the cult of The Names; we are involved in James Axton's experience of that deciphering. The distinction is crucial and will dictate your enjoyment of the book: do you prefer the journey or the arrival? Those who read for love of language will be in heaven. But I ultimately found myself reading from curiosity rather than absorption. I couldn't help wondering what Umberto Eco, say, would have done with the same ideas.