The Body Artist

By: Don DeLillo

Narrated by: Laurie Anderson

Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

In this spare, seductive novel, Don DeLillo inhabits the muted world of Lauren Hartke, an artist whose work defies the limits of the body. Lauren is living on a lonely coast, in a rambling rented house, where she encounters a strange, ageless man, a man with uncanny knowledge of her life. Together they begin a journey into the wilderness of time - time, love, and human perception.

©2001 Don DeLillo, All Rights Reserved (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved

Critic reviews

“DeLillo’s most affecting novel yet...A dazzling, phosphorescent work of art.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

“The clearest vision yet of what it felt like to live through that day.” (Malcolm Jones, Newsweek)

“A metaphysical ghost story about a woman alone…intimate, spare, exquisite.” (Adam Begley, The New York Times Book Review)

Worth it just to hear Laurie Anderson's narration!

DeLillo's take on the grieving process is fascinating, unique and, admittedly, sometimes confusing. As one reviewer noted, you can't listen to The Body Artist in traffic and fully appreciate its complexity. Laurie Anderson's narration is superbly nuanced. Hers is just the right voice, just the right articulation.

DeLillo's usual excellence

With DeLillo's usual expertise, this story is an excellent slant on the grieving process. I felt that I wanted to listen to it again as soon as it had ended, afraid that I had missed so much of the important details. This is definitely one that bears repeating and I would highly recommend it. It is not one to be casually listened to in the background, however. It required concentration. I found myself rewinding whenever I got to engrossed in traffic while I drove...but well worth the effort!

Worth Listening to Multiple Times

I normally don't take to lyrical prose, if that is in fact what I listened to. The book comes in at three and a half hours, which was ideal for getting out of my comfort zone. In an era where information comes lightning fast and you just want to hurry up and get to the next thing, I like that the book makes you slow down and take the time to really listen to what it has to say. When I realized that the opening scene in the kitchen was not going to transition anytime soon, I let myself appreciate the choice of words and how DeLillo was saying it.

Laurie Anderson's narration is warm and deliberately paced. It was well suited for the way the story is told.

In short, it's about a woman who loses her husband to suicide and a "being" who has been in the house where she lives appearing to her shortly after. What makes me want to listen to this again is that, now that I have a full understanding of what a Body Artist is and does, it leaves me to wonder if the apparition was real or not. The book makes no effort to answer either way, which I loved.

What I thought was going to be tedious wound up being a pleasant surprise and I'm glad I stuck with it. I'll be looking for more of the author and the narrator in future.

Excellent in every way

I'd give this one six stars if I could. DeLillo isn't everyone's cup of tea. The earlier negative reviewer is fair: the painstaking exactitude with which he documents our (contemporary American people's) thoughts and speech could, I suppose,--if you're not attuned--seem to have a pointless obsessiveness. But man alive, if you let yourself go with it, you'll find that he's speaking thoughts you yourself have had, speech you yourself recall having heard someplace (you can't quite recall where); and it's all absolutely true, often funny, and continually disconcerting. What's even more odd about the sense of familiarity is that this book, really, is a bizarre ghost story in the tradition of James' Turn of the Screw or Conrad's Secret Sharer.
About the narration: Laurie Anderson is perfect for this book in every way, aurally and temperamentally. I could listen to her tell stories for days on end. Audio quality excellent, too.

Powerful and Intense, but Hard to Follow

What three words best describe Laurie Anderson’s voice?

I love her own work and saw her many years ago in a brilliant concert. Unfortunately, her voice strikes me as ineffectively "quiet" for these purposes. I listened while I rode in a car, and it seemed much of her inflection got drowned out by road noise. She's a great performer and a major artist in her own right, but I don't think her voice is quite pitched for the work of narration.

Any additional comments?

I'm a big DeLillo fan, but this turned out to be very difficult to follow as an audiobook. It's a story where the ground is constantly shifting, where we can't be certain of many of the things we early on take for granted. I think it would be confusing to read even as a printed book, but that confusion is amplified through the listening experience.

The central figure experiences a deep loss and, at least I read it, she projects that loss onto a character who suddenly seems to occupy her house. I read that character as an image of her grief and, as such, that central metaphor is beautiful and powerful. The book doesn't settle there, though, and, much as it pains me to say of DeLillo, this one doesn't quite find its core argument. (I recently read Point Omega as well, and I found that a much better work.)

Amazing in every way

Will be listening to this again, perfect in every way, Laurie Anderson a perfect match for the book.

My favorite book

Artful and intelligent, this minimalist and thought provoking writing style had me hooked in the book and equally in the audio version. I won't forget this one

Sort of a Tone Poem of a Book

There's not a whole lot of story to this book. It is more or less the story of how a woman comes to terms with the death of her husband after he kills himself. On her return to the house they have been renting after the funeral, she discovers a man in the house who appears to have overheard various conversations she had with her husband and is able to almost play them back for her. But it is never clear who this person is, or, ultimately, whether he even exists or not.

The style is similar to parts of Delillo's major work, 'Underworld', and the effect is almost more of a meditation or tone poem than a story.

Good Story but So-so Reading

The voice of the performer is really melodic and nice but she does not inflected AT ALL during dialogue scenes. I'm not exaggerating. A two-page exchange of dialogue sounds like an incoherent monologue. Also, I'd read the novel before hearing the audio and I think she often uses the wrong tone for the characters. Again, though, while reading the prose her voice is very nice.

DeLillo Disappointment

This is my first encounter with DeLillo, so I don't know if this book is representative of his style, but I found the repetitious writing very boring. I couldn't wait for it to be finished.