Dhalgren

801 pages

English language

Published July 30, 2001 by Vintage Books.

ISBN:
978-0-375-70668-4
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4 stars (36 reviews)

Dhalgren is a 1975 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It features an extended trip to and through Bellona, a fictional city in the American Midwest cut off from the rest of the world by an unknown catastrophe.

19 editions

Dhalgren

3 stars

1) "to wound the autumnal city. So howled out for the world to give him a name. The in-dark answered with wind. All you know I know: careening astronauts and bank clerks glancing at the clock before lunch; actresses cowling at light-ringed mirrors and freight elevator operators grinding a thumbful of grease on a steel handle; student riots; know that dark women in bodegas shook their heads last week because in six months prices have risen outlandishly; how coffee tastes after you've held it in your mouth, cold, a whole minute. A whole minute he squatted, pebbles clutched with his left foot (the bare one), listening to his breath sound tumble down the ledges. Beyond a leafy arras, reflected moonlight flittered. He rubbed his palms against denim. Where he was, was still. Somewhere else, wind whined. The leaves winked. What had been wind was a motion in brush below. His …

Review of 'Dhalgren' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Dhalgren is an intimidating book, I found it hard to read due to its language and style until I got used to it and now I find it hard to talk about. A city somewhere in the midwest has been effectively forgotten by the rest of the world after a tragic and highly destructive event (maybe paranormal? maybe more grounded in historical events?) occurred, prompting its gradual abandonment by its population. Now it's become a lawless sort of enclosed space where for better and worse both social and time-and-space norms apply very haphazardly. I was reminded at times of Roadside Picnic, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Jose Saramago's books such as Blindness. It touches on cyclical history, a nation that turns its back on victims, what people keep and leave behind from their identity when found somewhere where "the normal" is suspended, there's a lot of sexual and gender …

Review of 'Dhalgren' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I read this in the 70's while in college, and remember being irritated by it. It is still irritating 45 years later. The parts that I completely forgot or misremembered entirely or reconstructed into an alternative narrative sketch a parallel wasteland to Bellona. Did I really read it before, or did I turn pages in a trance? What does it mean when a book leaves a hallucination of itself behind? Or is that all that a book can ever leave behind?

Review of 'Dhalgren' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I loved Delany’s [b:The Mad Man|786182|The Mad Man|Samuel R. Delany|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1178333995l/786182.SY75.jpg|13666334], a favorite of mine for a few years. I was really interested in reading another work of his, especially one that’s so highly regarded. It ended up becoming a new favorite as well.

This was a beautiful epic of science fiction/magical realism, with a colorful cast of characters and realistic dialogue. One thing I like about Delany’s work is his realism among the unbelievable. He doesn’t shy away from describing the dirty bits of the real world, yet his work is simultaneously otherworldly.

The theme that stood out most to me throughout the story was that of uncertainty, particularly the feeling of it and having to live with it. People of Bellona don’t know what day or year it is, or even the exact time of day. The main character Kid is only so-called because he doesn’t know …

Review of 'Dhalgren' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Couldn't finish this book. Got through about 150 pages and finally gave up. I can see what Delany is trying to do, but the overly-florid language didn't speak to me. Many of the scenes seem to be meant to be edgy, but feel fairly run-of-the-mill in no longer feel out of the usual to me in 2018 (half-naked men in leathers, gay sex). Perhaps I tried reading this at the wrong time.

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Subjects

  • City and town life -- Fiction

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