Blew through this novel in one sitting. Boy, had I missed Don DeLillo. There are few things that get me like his way of crafting words does. Quick read. Created disturbance and uneasiness that sank through my entire body. Great complement to my month off from facebook with the themes of time.

My favorite lines:

Opening of Chapter 1, p. 17: The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever. The true life takes place when we're alone, thinking, feeling, lost in memory, dreamingly self-aware, the submicroscopic moments.

p. 45: It's all about time, dimwit time, inferior time, people checking watches and other devices, other reminders. This is time draining out of our lives. Cities were built to measure time, to remove time from nature. There's an endless counting down, he said. When you strip away all the surfaces, when you see into it, what's left is terror. This is the thing that literature was meant to cure. The epic poem, the bedtime story.

p. 47: "I stayed awhile. Because even when something happens, you're waiting for it to happen."

p. 58: "Both crazy. Over the years it ripens."
"What, being crazy?"
"You don't see it at first. Either they conceal it or it just needed to ripen. Once it does, it's unmistakable."

p. 66: In the kitchen he said, "I know about your marriage. You had the kind of marriage where you tell each other everything. You told her everything. I look at you and see this in your face. It's the worst thing you can do in a marriage. Tell her everything you feel, tell her everything you do. That's why she thinks you're crazy."
At dinner, over another omelette, he waved his fork and said, "You understand it's not a matter of strategy. I'm not talking about secrets or deceptions. I"m talking about being yourself. If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things the others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself."