The Names (1982)

by Don DeLillo

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,440	14	13,755	(3.75)	37
Set against the backdrop of a lush and exotic Greece, The Names is considered the book which began to drive "sharply upward the size of his readership" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Among the cast of DeLillo's bizarre yet fully realized characters in The Names are Kathryn, the narrator's estranged wife; their son, the six-year-old novelist; Owen, the scientist; and the neurotic narrator obsessed with his own neuroses. A thriller, a mystery, and still a moving examination of family, loss, and the amorphous and magical potential of language itself, The Names stands with any of DeLillo's more recent and highly acclaimed works.… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by	anarchistaesthete, toledo87, RichardHare, bozun, eirinl, khain777, CharlieFCray, jwwingo, ross_scarano
Legacy Libraries	Terence Kemp McKenna, Newton 'Bud' Flounders

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

00
The Cyclist: A Novel by Viken Berberian (fishersnap)
fishersnap: Farflung and global, atmospheric and strange. The Cylist is reminiscent of early Dellilo with chapters on Beirut, though Berberian is more dreamy and surreal in his depiction of political violence. Both obsessed with the archeology of language and violence.… (more)

▾Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (984)

The American novels that should have won the Booker prize (14)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 37 mentions

▾Member reviews

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)

Reason read: 1001 special event; word of the month, May 2024
This was not my favorite DeLillo novel. I had a hard time finding a reason to like this one. It is a story that had potential and I liked some aspects but mostly I did not like this one. There are themes of language, marriage, religion, politics, writing. There is a bit of mystery but it’s not enough. This just wan’t my thing. I d think the “politics” was spot on. (

)

Kristelh | May 15, 2024 |

First DeLillo book on recommendation by a friend. I enjoyed the writing style. I also enjoyed the ambling-ness of the story. It has a strange obsessive-nostalgic element to it that works well. (

)

postsbygina | Apr 23, 2024 |

3.5 rounded up. Loved the writing and was fully engrossed for the first half of the book. There isn't much plot but things petered out by the end. (

)

mmcrawford | Dec 5, 2023 |

I thought I would never finish reading The Names.

CatherineMachineGun | Jul 31, 2020 |

I like DeLillo quite a bit, and I don't mind "plotless" books. But man, I had to drop this one. The writing, while great, bordered on rambling in spots, and DeLillo's knack for making all of his characters (including a child) all sound exactly the same really stuck out here. I'll hopefully go back to this sometime down the road, but not any time soon.

wordsampersand | Dec 6, 2018 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (7 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Don DeLillo	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Marcellino, Fred	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Vintage Contemporaries

Is contained in

End Zone / The Names by Don DeLillo

Americana / Players / The Names / White Noise / Libra by Don DeLillo

Don DeLillo: Three Novels of the 1980s (LOA #363): The Names / White Noise / Libra (Library of America, 365) by Don DeLillo

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 Edition)

Notable Books List (1982)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1982

People/Characters

James Axton

Important places

Kouros, Cyclades, Greece

Athens, Greece

Mani, Greece

Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

For a long time I stayed away from the Acropolis.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

The Names (novel)

▾Book descriptions

Set against the backdrop of a lush and exotic Greece, The Names is considered the book which began to drive "sharply upward the size of his readership" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Among the cast of DeLillo's bizarre yet fully realized characters in The Names are Kathryn, the narrator's estranged wife; their son, the six-year-old novelist; Owen, the scientist; and the neurotic narrator obsessed with his own neuroses. A thriller, a mystery, and still a moving examination of family, loss, and the amorphous and magical potential of language itself, The Names stands with any of DeLillo's more recent and highly acclaimed works.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary