"He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that is halfway hopeful."
— Opening line
Underworld is an epic postmodern novel written by Don DeLillo and published in 1997.
Set between 1951 and 1992, Underworld tells the story of Nick Shay and Klara Sax and the interconnected disparate stories and events across the second-half century of America. The novel famously opens with the legendary baseball match in New York City in 1951 between the Dodgers and the Giants, who won the home-run pennant that is known as the "Shot Heard Round the World", which Nick now owns the winning baseball.
Widely regarded as DeLillo's best work and as a runner-up for the best American novel in the past 25 years,
Underworld is also considered one of the Great American Novels.
Tropes found in Underworld:
- Anachronic Order: Each chapter switch focuses on different disparate characters and events in different episodes of 20th-century America throughout the novel.
- Doorstopper: Being DeLillo's only long novel, it is extremely long, clocking at 827 pages.
- Ensemble Cast: Along with the two protagonists, the novel also focuses on many disparate characters dispersed throughout the novel.
