First (re)reading of the month complete, DeLillo's THE BODY ARTIST, and wanted to record first, immediate, visceral thoughts in the 18 minutes left in my reading time: an unsettling snapshot of grief and shock – the grief of shock, the shock of grief – and the unmooring that ensues, the loss of identity, of self, the pressure of finding a new one, of grasping for one...

Is reality too powerful for you?

Take the risk. Believe what you see and hear. It's the pulse of every secret intimation you've ever felt around the edges of your life.

Don DeLillo https://bookshop.org/books/the-body-artist/9780743203968

… that ranks still – as it has since my first reading in 2014 (has it really been eight years? reality reality) – among my favorite books, probably my favorite of his; followed quickly by UNDERWORLD and LIBRA (the other two contenders for the favorite DeLillo title), my first recommendation to anyone seeking to dive into DeLillo's work.

Next up on the (re)read list: Carson McCullers’s THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER; my complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.