Americana
AuthorDon DeLillo
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherHoughton Mifflin
Publication date
1971
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages388 pp (HB 1st edition)
ISBN0-395-12094-2
OCLC137561
813/.5/4
LC ClassPZ4.D346 Am PS3554.E4425
Followed byEnd Zone 

Americana (1971) is American novelist Don DeLillo's first book.[1] DeLillo conceived the novel while traveling through Maine with friends.[2] In 1989, DeLillo revised the text, excising several pages from the original.[citation needed]

Content

The book is narrated by David Bell, a former television executive turned avant-garde filmmaker. Beginning with an exploration of the malaise of the modern corporate man, the novel turns into an interrogation of film's power to misrepresent reality as Bell creates an autobiographical road-movie.[3] The story addresses roots of American pathology and introduces themes DeLillo expanded upon in The Names (1982), White Noise (1985), and Libra (1988). The first half of the novel can be viewed as a critique of the corporate world while the second half articulates the fears and dilemmas of contemporary American life.

References

  1. ^ Wood, William (2010). "Don DeLillo". The Point. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  2. ^ Begley, Adam (Fall 1993). "Don DeLillo, The Art of Fiction No. 135". The Paris Review. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  3. ^ Duvall, John N. (2008). The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo. Cambridge University Press p. 13. ISBN 978-1-1398-2808-6.


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