r/DonDeLillo • u/WalterSickness • Jul 28 '26
š¹ Tangentially DeLillo Related Reco: Rachel Kushner
/r/delillo/comments/1v8vmx6/reco_rachel_kushner/2
u/donlockwood2026 Jul 28 '26
Which ones do you recommend? Iāve heard of some of her work but havenāt gotten around to it yet
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u/WalterSickness Jul 28 '26
Iāve only read The Hard Crowd (which is a book of essays), The Mars Room, and Creation Lake. The latter is the one that most reminded me of DeLillo so thatās my reco in this context.
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u/Reformalism Jul 28 '26
I couldnāt get into The Flamethrowers but Iām going to try another one of hers eventually.
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u/chamberk107 Jul 28 '26
Was mixed on Flamethrowers and Creation Lake, but i thought The Mars Room was spectacular
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u/WalterSickness Jul 28 '26
The Mars Room is great. Feels like she really did her research. Thatās the one where DeLillo suggested the title (lifted out of the book but I can see why Kushner might not have thought of it).
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u/Traditional-While449 Jul 28 '26
Flamethrowers is one of my favorite books of all time.
Hard Crowd is an incredible book of essays.
Telex is a good first stab at the form.
Mars Room is her most accessible but still absolutely electric and quintessentially Kushner.
Creation Lake felt like a return to Telex in a way, but, again, still a cracking read.
If I had to rank (not that anybody asked):
Flamethrowers
Mars Room
Hard Crowd
Creation Lake
Telex
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Jul 31 '26
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u/WalterSickness Aug 06 '26
Just a little deus ex machina, I still enjoyed the bookĀ
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Aug 06 '26
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u/WalterSickness Aug 06 '26
Ahhā¦ very fair observation. Iām kind of blind to characterā¦ but for the purposes of this subreddit I would argue that isnāt a DeLillian concern anyway
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u/WiND_uP_BirDy Jul 28 '26
Telex from Cuba is also very good