Cosmopolis / by Don DeLillo

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28-year-old Eric Packer works on Wall Street earning a fortune managing assets for some of the city's wealthiest, most prestigious residents. Deciding to get a haircut one April day, Eric promptly sets out on a quick jaunt across midtown Manhattan inside his ultra-luxurious stretch limo. The percievably short trip swiftly becomes a very slow-moving promenade delayed by, among other things, a Presidential visit to the city, a funeral procession for a slain rapper and a political demonstration transformed into an all-out street riot. In addition to the traffic congestion, several conspicuously bizarre incidents are encountered. Confrontations with various pushy New Yorkers and passers-by are routine, but repeated sightings of Eric's estranged wife in various odd predicaments and continued harassment from two vaguely identified but very determined pursuants-- the "pastry assassin" and the "credible threat"--aren't so readily excepted by Eric as OK.
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The delays, however disruptive, give Eric time to speak to his clients whom he urgently persuades to follow his lead in speculating against the rise of the Yen and fluctuations in the Asian market. In the course of the day, Eric's market forecasts ultimately spell doom for he and his clients when his projections falter and unfathomable sums of money are lost by all involved. Yet Eric seems strangely unaffected by the crisis. His voyage to the barbershop proceeds as planned even while his fortune dwindles, his clients abandon him and utter financial ruin rapidly becomes a reality. Upon finally arriving at his objective, things are quite different from what they were earlier on. But so is Eric.
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Delillo, award-winning author of Underworld and White Noise, presents a quirky jumble of society and modernity in this eventful, oddly arranged novel of the 1990's. The narrative is almost permanently one-dimensional--all things immediate, actions percieved but not interpreted, virtually no background context allowed to invade the atmosphere, etc. Everything is observed or experienced from inside the limo, a position mirroring Eric's own affectless, disengaged attitude towards the world around him. This short, manageable novel would adapt well to the big screen or dramatic theatre.