I reviewed the book a few years back, here's the pertinent part:
"I loved practically everything, sometimes hard to pin point what it is. The gloomy atmosphere of death, consumerism, and odd existential crisis-inducing triggers was absolutely phenomenal. [...], but apart from that we have the whole struggle-bus of person vs. Machine, person vs. Reality, person vs. Simulation (Baudrillard let's go!), person vs. Death. I laughed out loud many times over the juxtaposition of extremely accurate descriptions of products or sentiments of the characters. When they say 'reality is stranger than fiction', it's mostly true, but DeLillo captures the essence of exactly that reality that we refer to which is stranger than fiction. [...]"
I think the adaption was great when it was on point, which was unfortunately only a handful of times. I think he nailed the Hitler studies, the supermarket, and the hyper self-awareness when Adam Driver is at the hotel room at the end. Other than that it was mostly just okay entertainment, if you're into discombobulated, vaguely post-modern fiction, a bit strange and unclear, if you're not into that. The airborn toxic event was much funnier in the book, when they lingered a bit more on the simulation vs. Reality bit. Moreover, the book was in my view carried by the details, the little interactions, nobody listening to each other, constantly repeating themselves, the product descriptions, the atmosphere, the indifference or incapacity of people to deal with a crisis at hand. Most of these more 'ambient' motifs were hard to convey, even though they did a decent job disorienting the viewer in terms of conversations that they run in parallel. Spoiler (skip to the end of the paragraph): the fact that they didn't do the Wilder bit at the end, is a pity, after foreshadowing that all plots go towards death.
All in all decent, but maybe more of a rounded up 7, since I'm a fan, otherwise it might be more of a 6, but whatever.
P. S.: I just wrote the title of the review with the ultimate "the book was better" ... I promise I'm fun at parties, but I'm aware that "the book was better" does not bode well for me.
"I loved practically everything, sometimes hard to pin point what it is. The gloomy atmosphere of death, consumerism, and odd existential crisis-inducing triggers was absolutely phenomenal. [...], but apart from that we have the whole struggle-bus of person vs. Machine, person vs. Reality, person vs. Simulation (Baudrillard let's go!), person vs. Death. I laughed out loud many times over the juxtaposition of extremely accurate descriptions of products or sentiments of the characters. When they say 'reality is stranger than fiction', it's mostly true, but DeLillo captures the essence of exactly that reality that we refer to which is stranger than fiction. [...]"
I think the adaption was great when it was on point, which was unfortunately only a handful of times. I think he nailed the Hitler studies, the supermarket, and the hyper self-awareness when Adam Driver is at the hotel room at the end. Other than that it was mostly just okay entertainment, if you're into discombobulated, vaguely post-modern fiction, a bit strange and unclear, if you're not into that. The airborn toxic event was much funnier in the book, when they lingered a bit more on the simulation vs. Reality bit. Moreover, the book was in my view carried by the details, the little interactions, nobody listening to each other, constantly repeating themselves, the product descriptions, the atmosphere, the indifference or incapacity of people to deal with a crisis at hand. Most of these more 'ambient' motifs were hard to convey, even though they did a decent job disorienting the viewer in terms of conversations that they run in parallel. Spoiler (skip to the end of the paragraph): the fact that they didn't do the Wilder bit at the end, is a pity, after foreshadowing that all plots go towards death.
All in all decent, but maybe more of a rounded up 7, since I'm a fan, otherwise it might be more of a 6, but whatever.
P. S.: I just wrote the title of the review with the ultimate "the book was better" ... I promise I'm fun at parties, but I'm aware that "the book was better" does not bode well for me.
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