Underworld

Why people recommend it

Underworld by Don DeLillo is a sprawling postmodern masterpiece that traces the second half of the twentieth century through the interconnected lives of various characters against the backdrop of the Cold War and the nuclear age. On The Book Review podcast, Colum McCann cited the novel alongside James Joyce's Ulysses, boldly declaring DeLillo's work to be one of the truly great novels of the twentieth century. Similarly, Amor Towles discussed the book on the How I Write podcast, pointing to Underworld as an example of an author's later work achieving even greater artistic heights. Both writers praised the immense structural ambition and linguistic brilliance that define DeLillo's narrative canvas, which moves effortlessly from historical baseball games to subterranean waste management. These critical endorsements on separate podcasts illustrate the profound esteem in which fellow novelists hold DeLillo's achievement. Listeners are invited to view the book not merely as a historical artifact of the American century, but as a towering achievement in modern prose craftsmanship that rewards deep, sustained analytical reading.