The Book: The Silence: A Novel, by Don DeLillo. 128 pages.
From one of the most dazzling and essential voices in American fiction, a timely and compelling novel set in the near future about five people gathered together in a Manhattan apartment, in the midst of a catastrophic event.
Don DeLillo completed this novel just weeks before the advent of Covid-19. The Silence is the story of a different catastrophic event. Its resonances offer a mysterious solace.
It is Super Bowl Sunday in the year 2022. Five people, dinner, an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. The retired physics professor and her husband and her former student waiting for the couple who will join them from what becomes a dramatic flight from Paris. The conversation ranges from a survey telescope in North-central Chile to a favorite brand of bourbon to Einstein’s 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity.
What to Bring? You do not need to bring anything. Simply read the book, OR listen to the audio book before attending the meeting. It can be useful if you bring your physical or digital copy of the book.
Who? This is a fun book club event that men and women from the neighborhood potluck list are invited to, along with everybody else who is interested.
Fun Book Club: This will be the 18th meeting of this book club. We had so much fun at the all of the meetings so far, with wonderful, fascinating discussions with great neighbors and new friends. If you like books or interesting discussions... or simply want to have fun meeting new people, I highly recommend RSVP-ing for this event.
You should be able to check out a physical or digital copy of this book from Tempe-area public libraries. An audio book is also available.
About the Author
Don DeLillo is the author of fifteen novels, including Zero K, Underworld, Falling Man, White Noise, and Libra. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize for his complete body of work, and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010, he was awarded the PEN/Saul Bellow Prize. The Angel Esmeralda was a finalist for the 2011 Story Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In 2012, DeLillo received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award for his body of work.
About the Location
This book club usually meets at the Tempe Public Library. But the rooms we regularly use there were not available for this month's meeting. We are meeting in a quiet and sizeable room in the Del Rio Meetinghouse. (This is the building where we sometimes play pickleball, but we will NOT be in the gym for the book club meeting.)