As a film critic, I see a disquieting truth in this tale about a solitary cinemagoer – that no matter how much we write about films, we can never truly share how they make us feel
Cinephiles – and perhaps more to the point, film critics – who are settling down to the new volume by Don DeLillo entitled The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories may be in for an uncomfortable time.
One of the most notable tales is the last, entitled The Starveling, and features a man living in New York, apparently in a state of advanced middle age, who is called Leo Zhezelniak – "it took half a lifetime before he began to fit into the name".
He shares an apartment, entirely amicably, with his ex-wife Flory who is an actor and radio announcer. As for Leo, he appears not to need to work for a living, and has cultivated the art of solitude.
Cinephiles – and perhaps more to the point, film critics – who are settling down to the new volume by Don DeLillo entitled The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories may be in for an uncomfortable time.
One of the most notable tales is the last, entitled The Starveling, and features a man living in New York, apparently in a state of advanced middle age, who is called Leo Zhezelniak – "it took half a lifetime before he began to fit into the name".
He shares an apartment, entirely amicably, with his ex-wife Flory who is an actor and radio announcer. As for Leo, he appears not to need to work for a living, and has cultivated the art of solitude.
- 12/9/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Over a 50-year literary career, Don DeLillo has published 16 novels, but never a short-story collection. His most successful short work is the novella “Pafko At The Wall,” which was retitled “The Triumph Of Death” when it became the prologue to DeLillo’s mammoth novel Underworld. Culled from DeLillo’s 20 or so short stories over the course of a 50-year career, The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories isn’t a comprehensive anthology of his short material, nor a coherent collection of stories written around the same time. Instead, it reads like an incomplete amalgam of B-sides and rarities, occasionally enlightening ...
- 12/7/2011
- avclub.com
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