Ratner's Star

Ratner's Star

"A whimsical, surrealistic excursion into the modern scientific mind." --<i>The New Yorker</i><br><br>One of DeLillo's first novels, <i>Ratner's Star </i>follows Billy, the genius adolescent, who is recruited to live in obscurity, underground, as he tries to help a panel of estranged, demented, and yet lovable scientists communicate with beings from outer space. It is a mix of quirky humor, science, mathematical theories, as well as the complex emotional distance and sadness people feel. <i>Ratner's Star</i> demonstrates both the thematic and prosaic muscularity that typifies DeLillo's later and more recent works, like <i>The Names</i> (which is also available in Vintage Contemporaries).  <br><br>"His most spectacularly inventive novel." --<i>The New York Times </i>