The Body Artist - Don DeLillo

The stories she told herself did not seem her exactly. She was in them so heedlessly they seemed to come from a deeper source, whatever that might mean, a thing that was overtaking her. Where did they come from? They did not come from the newspaper. She hadn't read a paper in some time. She looked at a paper in town, at the general store, front page only, and it seemed to be another framework altogether, a slick hysteria of picture and ink, the world so fleetingly easy to love and hate, so reliable and forgettable in its recipes and wars and typographical errors.

A beautifully written short novel. This book is complex in only its 124 pages. It took me some time to get established in what was going on, but I enjoyed the writing and mystery from the beginning. DeLillo is one of those writers who could write prescription drug warning labels and I would read them.

The book invokes thoughts of love and death in a surreal manner. Mysterious interactions with a character that is difficult to determine if he really exists in the material world. This is one of the more intriguing and ingenious books I have. It takes the reader into another realm to look back at one's life and life in general. Plan on reading this short book slowly without feeling rushed to understand what's going on in the first part. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.