Plot Introduction
Underworld is a non-linear narrative that has many intertwined themes. A central character is Nick Shay, a waste management executive, who leads an undirected existence in late 20th century America. His wife, Marian, is having an affair with one of his friends.
The events of the novel span from the 1950s through the 1990s. The characters in the book respond to several historical events, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and nuclear proliferation.
The novel is divided into eight sections:
- Prologue – The Triumph of Death (3 October 1951; this section has been published separately, as a novella, under the title Pafko at the Wall)
- Part 1 – Long Tall Sally (Spring-Summer 1992)
- Part 2 – Elegy for Left Hand Alone (Mid-1980s – Early 1990s)
- Part 3 – The Cloud of Unknowing (Spring 1978)
- Part 4 – Cocksucker Blues (Summer 1974)
- Part 5 – Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry (Selected Fragments Public and Private in the 1950s and 1960s)
- Part 6 – Arrangement in Gray and Black (Fall 1951 – Summer 1952)
- Epilogue – Das Kapital
Read more about this topic: Underworld (DeLillo novel)
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“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)