Dhalgren

by Samuel R. Delany

Book Overview

In one of the most profound and bestselling science fiction novels of all time, Samuel R. Delany has produced a novel "to stand with the best American fiction of the 1970s" (Jonathan Lethem, bestselling author of Fortress of Solitude).

Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there.... The population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375706682
• ISBN13: 9780375706684
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 816 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Rumors of Dhalgren's impenetrability are greatly exaggerated

I read this book in three days, found none of the sex gratuitous, never felt lost (though the narrative certainly does fly apart in the last section), and thought the book, if it needed editing, only needed about 75 pages worth, and that's spread out across 800. I seem to be in the minority, and that makes sense--this is not a book for everyone. But for me, Dhalgren is the best book I've read in months, and I desperately don't want its detractors to scare people like me off. No, fans of early Delany, this is not Babel-17, but I personally think he didn't start getting really good until Nova and his short stories. No, people of delicate sensibilities, this is not a sanitized book, but those who believe it's _just_ about the author's own bisexuality are probably betraying their own sensitivities; frankly, I found issues of race, the concept of identity, the artistic drive, philosophy, the power of myth, semiotics, metafiction, and the overwhelming theme of "What happens when time has no meaning?" to be far more prevalent than the issues of sexuality. There _is_ a lot of sex in certain sections of Dhalgren, but it usually serves as a signpost in a relationship, showing just how two or more people stand at that particular moment. Dhalgren is also not "about nothing," nor is it "disjointed"--there is very clearly a storyline going on, though its initial stated goals lose meaning as certain themes start to take over the universe of the book. It's no A-to-B plot, but it's one seriously good A-through-B-and-around-back-to-A (or IS it?) plot. So what IS Dhalgren? To me, it's a book with all of the best thematic concerns of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow combined with a few very awesome riffs on Joyce, universalized by the sheer mythic BIGNESS of this very, very weird place in which it all occurs. Fans of the Big Dense Postmodern Novel and SF's '60s New Wave might fall madly in love with this, as might anyone who likes both Haruki Murakami and Hunter Thompson. I know I did. Plenty of people have tried to summarize this thing, but this is what you need to know: Dhalgren is an eerie, sexy, alternately thrilling and draining, mythic picaresque of a book in which one very confused guy enters the weirdest place on earth and ends up at the center of everything through no fault of his own. The desperate search for knowledge comes up with tantalizing clues and some emotionally walloping encounters and relationships with other people, but the Kid's mind is his own worst enemy, and the nearly self-aware city seems not too far behind. By the end, the Kid might not even care, but that doesn't free him from the troubles not knowing causes. Plenty of possible answers pop up, but this mystery's solution seems overdetermined: there are dozens of ways to explain what's going on, but each one has just as much tantalizing evidence as the others, and none fit the whole story perfectly. This is a book where you're going to want to flip back a lot to find out wh

Many days and nights in the mysterious city of Bellona

At last, at long last, I have finished Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren, and here are my thoughts, enhanced by some quotes from William Gibson's foreword to the book.Dhalgren is not a book for everyone; in fact, I'd even go so far as to say it's not for most people. Delany's work is definitely influenced by the fact that he is a gay black man, so if you're expecting normal sexual and emotional relationships, look elsewhere. It's also a dense book, which your average Grisham- or Crichton-reading person is not going to get, or even want to get. It's also long and slower-paced than most books I've read.That said, it's also one of the most fascinating tales I've read to date. I have sincere worries I'll ever be able to look at, say, a Philip K. Dick book with quite as much reverence again.It is a labyrinthine book, a sort of wandering narrative that somehow stays carefully focused as the tale weaves continually through its long tale. In his foreword, William Gibson said, "I have never understood it. I have sometimes felt that I partially understood it, or that I was nearing the verge of understanding it. This has never caused me the least discomfort, or interfered in any way with my pleasure in the text. If anything, the opposite has been true."When I read those words before starting the text, I had my doubts, along with a few lofty - but misplaced - ambitions. How, I wondered, could you not "get" a book, yet still enjoy it? "Maybe I can figure its mystery out," I said to myself. How foolish I was.In re-reading the foreword after finishing the book, I see now that Gibson was absolutely right. "Dhalgren," he says, "is not there to be finally understood." This is absolutely correct; the nature of the city and the events that occur within it are part of the story, but are not the point. The point of the story is the story; it is one of the few works I have read that justifies itself simply by reading through it.Gibson also describes in his foreword how reading Dhalgren strips the reader of many of the things that readers often consider to be their fundamental rights as readers, because it refuses to deliver itself unto the reader in the typical question/reward fashion. "If this is a quest, the reader protests, then we must learn the object of that quest. If this is a mystery, we must be told at least the nature of the puzzle. And Dhalgren does not answer."This, too, is true. This may sound strange, but there is simply no way to put into words how this book can be so unconventional, so unyielding of its secrets to the reader, and yet so thoroughly enjoyable.And the strange thing about this book is that even though it is long and has no overt "point", even though it does not deliver insights on what will happen next, even though it took me over four months to read, I loved it. It feels good to have finished this book, as though I took the ride with Kid and Lanya and all the rest. It's a journey I won't soon forget. And if you're just the right kind of reader,

I have come to to wound the autumnal city.

It's hard to write a review for this book. The first time I read was like ten years ago. I was around 15 or 16. It looks intimidating. Thick, and as hard to get into as a bar on Sunset on Friday night. I was an English major in college and I have never read anything like it. I've read it two or three times since then and I still don't get it all. Am I supposed to? I would love to meet Delany and ask him what it all means, but I'm sure he would say that would ruin the whole point. One of the things that stands out most is the dialogue. It's amazingly written. Pick out any piece of dialogue (without the speaker's name) and anyone familiar with the text would know exactly who was speaking. That's very difficult to accomplish. His characters are so real, so convincing, it's seem like they are alive somethere, still living. I think the loop of the beginning and end, "... to wound..." is one of the strengths of the novel. It's better to not know the answers. If everything was spelled out, what fun would that be? The ambiguity gives it depth and intrigue.I think about aspects of this story with frightening regularity. Everytime I go under a street light, I think of Dhalgren. I swear one pulses and dies just because I am looking. Everytime I look at the moon, I think of George.An interesting part sticks with me. I'll paraphrase: in a week, I can't remember five days. In a year, how many days will YOU never think of again. How true is that? Wow. What were you doing on Sep. 9th, 1994? If it's your B-day, anniversary, or whatever think of another date. How insignificant mundane, day-to-day things are in the grand sceme of time. Nothing matters, only hugely significant things are remembered or important. Delany goes into many other social, literary and cultural questions which would be too numberous to mention here. But they ALL matter to this book. Everything means something here and to cram in so many ideas and fit them together so well with such simple language is incredible.What does it all mean? The red eye caps? The optic chains? The light projectors? The scratch on her leg? The notebook? Bill's name-is it William Dhalgren? I always thought that was Kid's name, because of the title. What year is it? What happened to the sun? Why can't he remember everything? Does Kid have multiple personalities? What's going on here? I honestly don't know and really don't want to. It would spoil the wonder of it all. This novel is a remarkable peice of literature. It, along with The Lord of the Rings, has influenced me greatly. I know I might not have chosen to become a writer myself if it were not for this. To emulate and possibly achieve this level. If only I

A densely written tour de force

"You have confused the true and the real," reads the epigram at the beginning of this long, complex novel. The true and the real? Are they different? So what? What does that have to do with anything, anyway?Welcome to Dhalgren, the masterwork of science fiction's most learned and intellectual practitioner. I have worked my way through this long book (879 pages in the Bantam paperback edition) once or twice a year since I discovered it in 1976. Each time, I spot more details, attain a deeper understanding of the story and the ideas that lie under it.The book is the story of a young drifter who has somehow lost track of his name and many of the details of his life. He travels to Bellona, a made-up city that has, some months or years before, undergone some cataclysm, a breakdown of society. Television and radio don't work. There is no contact with the outside world. Almost everyone has departed, leaving gangs, back-to-the-earthers, do-gooders, and others. In the absence of laws and authorities, they find a way to live together. The main character--called variously "the kid," "the Kid," and "Kidd" (keep track, these variations are significant)--finds a place in this anarchic protosociety as a poet and a gang leader. Ultimately he creates an identity, a sense of who he is...and in the final pages, leaves the city.The city is not a normal place. Buildings burn without being consumed. Some laws of physics seem suspended. One night a second moon rises over the city; the next day, everyone agrees not only that the second moon was there, but they also share an understanding of the second moon's name. None of these details are explained.The textual complexity is immense. Early in the book, the Kid finds a discarded notebook with writing on only one side of the paper. He flips through it to a random page. The text on the page is almost precisely the same text that appears on page 1 of Dhalgren--that is, Kidd's own story! The kid keeps the notebook and begins using it as a journal. He writes poetry in it. One long section of Dhalgren is presented as a palimpsest--that is, a document in which layers of embellishments and commentaries are presented as an integral part of the text. In this section, it is impossible to tell which portions are written by Kidd and which already existed in the notebook when he found it.Throughout, Delany uses kaleidoscopic, beautiful language. Pick a page at random and read it aloud; it will sound like poetry. One marvels at the sustained effort that allowed Delany to maintain the vision and tone of this book through 879 pages.The book starts in mid-sentence, by the way. And it ends mid-sentence. The two ends fit; it's possible that the final words of the book are the beginning of the first sentence, and that the entire novel can be read in a circle.Explicit sex scenes--heterosexual, homosexual, groups--and adult language mean this book is not for everyone. But if such things don't bother you,

A masterpiece by the master of the English language!

I was given my copy of Dhalgren four years ago by a close friend who told me,"You have got to read this book!" I took the book and read it. I was stunned.Delany's use of language and symbolism in Dhalgren conveys the feelings and actions of how a counter-culture society would exist in extreme situations. A deserted city; no day; no night; two moons and a bloated sun--are some of the bizarre happenings in the city of Bellona.Delany also delves into the hearts and minds of his characters, allowing them to express with word and deed a mirror of today's world views with a subtlety that will stun anyone who apprieciates literature.Not a book for the faint of heart, Dhalgren contains violence and very graphic sexual scenes. If you love stories that explore human nature, Dhalgren may be a book for you. It's labeled Sci-Fi only because Delany had built a name for himself as a sci-fi writer before the publication of Dhalgren with his books "Nova" and "Trouble on Triton".Dhalgren is a great read but take your time and absorb it. If you have trouble with it, put it down and come back to it later. Whatever you do, read the book cover to cover. You will not be disappointed.