A Review By Ruth Hunter, BookTime Editor, Bertrams

A terse, taut and enigmatic novel from DeLillo, this concerns Jim, a young would-be avant-garde film-maker who is desperate to persuade Elster, an old former government advisor, into being the object of his next project. Though they are both New Yorkers, the two get together in a remote desert in California, and end up talking philosophically about war, language and consciousness. Things are complicated when Elster’s daughter Jessie arrives and stays on with them. DeLillo bookends this tale with that of another man, who is obsessed with 24 Hour Psycho, a real, slowed down version of the Hitchcock film. The story holds more questions than answers, as DeLillo’s poetic prose never reveals too much, but enough to get you thinking.