Underworld by Don DeLillo

At first glance, this book looks like every other 9/11 book with its cover of the Twin Towers enshrouded in smoke while the second plane approaches, the cross of a NYC cathedral in the foreground. Jesus H. Christ that’s some heavy handed Photoshopping! I automatically assumed that Don DeLillo must be a former speech writer of George W. Bush or perhaps a news desk editor for FOX News, but then I got to thinking. What if this book came out before 9/11? After all, I was standing there looking at it in the book section of my local Salvation Army.

I squinted harder and held the book with both hands. I then realized that the approaching object isn't a plane but a bird and that the smoke isn't smoldering jet fuel but fog. This DeLillo guy must be some kind of prophet. At the bottom of the cover it says that he is also the author of Libra and White Noise. I am not a big fan of astrology and I am not so shallow as to judge White Noise on Michael Keaton's sub par performance in the film adaptation. Judging a book by its cover requires an observant mind. Judging one by its film is intellectually lazy.

DeLillo is an Italian surname thus the title Underworld must imply some sort of mafia plot. Given that it's published by Scribner (a fancy pants, artsy fartsy publishing house), the book is probably some high brow, conspiracy theory narrative that ties the Gambino crime family to 9/11. At least three inches thick, there's got to be more to the novel than a bunch of guineas strong-arming stock brokers. The religious cross in the foreground hints at a potential Catholic priest molestation subplot. I am sensing that the book is an Oliver Stone/Da Vinci Code hybrid. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Underworld has won the Pulitzer. Therefore, this book is definitely worth picking up and looking at. In fact, if you're only going to look at one book in your entire lifetime, I would say let it be this one.

Here's my reasoning. I have a friend with an MFA in poetry. He wears $150 flannel shirts and has two beards. Whenever I question him on the importance of literature, he responds with some quote about writers being the antennae of the race. If I had to guess, I'd say he probably lifted the quote from someone much smarter than himself. Anyway, DeLillo certainly fits this category. I would even go so far as to say that the prophetic symbolism of its cover makes Underworld worth actually buying. It just might be the most significant book cover of the twentieth century.