Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Ratner's Star
1976 novel by Don DeLillo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Ratner's Star is a 1976 novel by Don DeLillo. It relates the story of a child prodigy mathematician who arrives at a secret installation to work on the problem of deciphering a mysterious message that appears to come from outer space. The novel has been described as "famously impenetrable".[1]
The novel has been described as a Menippean satire and akin to the works of Thomas Pynchon.[2] In critical reviews, the protagonist, Billy Twillig, was compared to Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five.[3]
The novel is told in two parts; the first is a conventional narrative, the second is less so. The author has said that the structural model was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.[4] The novel develops the idea that science, mathematics, and logic—in parting from mysticism—do not contain the fear of death, and therefore offer no respite.
Remove ads
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads