Cosmopolis: A Novel by Don Delillo

Description

'A brilliant excursion into the decadence of contemporary culture' – “Sunday Times”. Eric Packer is a twenty-eight-year-old multi-billionaire asset manager. We join him on what will become a particularly eventful April day in turn-of-the-twenty-first-century Manhattan. He's on a personal odyssey, to get a haircut. Sitting in his stretch limousine as it moves across town, he finds the city at a virtual standstill because the President is visiting, a rapper's funeral is proceeding, and a violent protest is being staged in Times Square by anti-globalist groups. Most worryingly, Eric's bodyguards are concerned that he may be a target …An electrifying study in affectlessness, infused with deep cynicism and measured detachment; a harsh indictment of the life-denying tendencies of capitalism; as brutal a dissection of the American dream as Wolfe's “Bonfire” or Ellis' “Psycho”, “Cosmopolis” is a caustic prophecy all too quickly realized. 'A prose-poem about New York …DeLillo has always been good at telling us where we're heading …we ignore him at our peril' – Blake Morrison, “Guardian”.