Dhalgren

By: Samuel R. Delany

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

In Dhalgren, perhaps one of the most profound and best-selling science fiction novels of all time, Samuel R. Delany has produced a novel that rivals the best American fiction of the 1970s.

Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there...the population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. And into this disaster zone comes a young man - a poet, a lover, and an adventurer - known only as the Kid.

Tackling questions of race, gender, and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and a groundbreaking work of American magical realism.

©1975 Samuel R. Delany (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

A great book

This is a thoughtful and great piece of literature. I don't typically like stories with explicit sex and vulgar language in it. I don't know why but Samuel Delany and William S. Burroughs are exceptions for me. It is as though those parts of their books blend in with the.parts I focus on and enjoy.

Absolutely enthralling and insane.

The writing style, subject matter, characters and setting create a vision of confusing beauty and palpable terror. A precious gem and my new all time favorite novel

Excruciatingly Boring

I kept hoping it would get better. Even the graphic sex within the first 5 minutes was uninteresting. 1 hour in and I have no idea what this is about. I can’t take another.

Great book, made more accessible by a great reader

This review is mostly about Rudnicki as narrator.

Dhalgren is an experimental novel in every way--form, genre, ethics, erotics, tone, temporal structure, you name it. No matter who voices this book, it will challenge a lot of readers. But honestly, I think Rudnicki gives first timers a lot of help. Rudnicki is a "heavy" reader, slow and careful. But in passage after passage, he helps cue the listener to multiple levels of meaning. Honestly, this is one of the best enhancements of a difficult novel by an intelligent narrator; five stars aren't enough for what Rudnicki accomplishes here.

Note: Delany plays with typescript and page design in a few places in Dhalgren, and there's no way Rudnicki can really "voice" those things. So if you want the full experience of every single passage, especially in the last section of the book, you'll have to get a paper copy (the Vintage one is fine). But, that aside, there's nothing lacking here.

The Most Disturbing, Enlightening Novel

Dhalgren is different than any book I have ever read. When it was first recommended to me, that friend told me, " This book turns everything you know on its head." That description was absolutely spot on. Delaney shows us, to an unbelievable extent, what is truly possible with language. From his poetic prose, to his vivid, explicit description of a society in the throes of social anarchy/mutual aid... Delaney astounds. This modern myth challenged me to the core - psychologically, philosophically, and morally. Hades is alive and real in the heart of America and the mind of our young Hermes, which we come to know affectionately as "the Kid".

Magnum opus

This novel is unique. I say that having read lots of novels. Delany takes us to a fictional city where something has happened. No one knows exactly what has happened. The laws of physics are not as applicable here as elsewhere. The main character is already struggling with his own perception of reality, and when you add the circumstances of the "autumnal city" to the mix, things get really bizarre. If you are looking for a linear plot, look elsewhere. If you don't mind having your brains scrambled a bit, and finding yourself amazed at the final pages, go for it. If you don't think you like SF, don't worry. This is SF, but it is so far removed from the traditional conventions of SF that lots of SF people trashed this book when it came out. Yet it is his most popular book, and with good reason. It is probably his most remarkable book, but he is a remarkable writer, so it's hard to say.

What a ride!

Gritty, surreal, poetic imagery that teases with questions that are never quite answered, a kaleidoscopic epic of a narrative as seen from the eyes of a schizophrenic amnesiac.

Yeasayers say yes. Naysayers say no.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It is experimental literature that has worn the test of time. If we shall fall for the fallacy of credentialism, Umberto Eco, Theodore Sturgeon, David Bowie, endorse this delicate fragile, imperfect yet bold unabashed and honest work.If it ain't for you then you don't have a place in Bellona.Go somewhere else.As for the rest of us, you are welcome here.Look, you'll know right away if this is not for you. Don't expect anything from Dhalgren. It is more suggestive than expressive. If you expect anything, be prepared for disappointment.However, if you take it as it comes, if you say yes, you are in for a treat. This is something unlike anything that came before it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dhalgren?

Sex with trees, the banality of prose. The beauty of it.

What about Stefan Rudnicki’s performance did you like?

His deep cadence plays well with the essence of this peculiar and noteworth work..

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

What you see is incomparable to what you think.

Any additional comments?

This is a landmark work that while imperfect, its contrivances suggests so much it must not be overlooked.All you have to do it let it.

Exquisite, Brilliant, Evocative...until 2nd half

The first 400 pages or so might as well be a different book altogether... The entire ambience of mental post-apocalypse is stewing mistily and anxiously forward in saavy and original metaphor up until after the disturbing encounter with "George Harrison" and the departure of Lania. Once past the meeting of Kidd in-house with Newboy, however, the book begins to degrade into almost insufferable banality... whereas previously, banality had been juiced through with foreboding, arresting verbal figures and arch but subtle social and psychological commentary, now it's just methodical description of extremely uneventful transactions, sexual encounters without great import or integration into the discovery or sensibility of the characters, random thefts and walking about... in short the book itself performs the rise and fall of the late 60s/ early 70s counterculture, from seduction to elation to decadence, then degeneration, then meaningless lost ambling...

Not for the faint, n words abound pederasty too.

A difficult read, full of blase violence, pederasty, and ends where comfort intersects with horror. it was powerful, sickening, and prescient. bit also the first time I've encountered pansexuality actually shown in literature.