Point Omega, Don DeLillo

BEST OF 2010

Don DeLillo cites the abstract expressionist art movement as a huge influence on his writing style. I have never noticed this as much as I noticed it in this newest novel (more a novella at only 119 pages). I see abstract expressionist art as an artist using the simple to convey the complex. The difficulty of understanding the color fields, unrecognizable shapes, and haphazard brush strokes.

I feel Point Omega is best compared to the art of Barnett Newman. The idea of the "zip" in Newman's art acts as a definition of spatial structure. Within this text, we find the "zip" as the middle section of the novel. The four chapters resting between a conceptual art exhibit. A period of time which seems to exist nowhere, everywhere, and somehow not at all.

DeLillo uses dialogue as an after thought. A way to prove how little can be said and how much understood. The novel works as a series of ideas, concepts, a not fully developed structure. But, having read previous DeLillo novels, I realize there is purpose. The text is meant to seem exposed, raw, and harsh.

A+