COSMOPOLIS

The events in this short novel occur in a single day, as 28-year-old billionaire Eric Packer is driven across New York City to get a haircut. In dryly precise prose, DeLillo portrays his main character as an amoral, self-absorbed, and eternally bored genius. Packer makes several stops during his tonsorial mission--to have sex, meet his wife, attend a funeral for a rap star, and finally to meet the man who wants to kill him. Richard Poe's narration is slow paced, and his rich voice nicely conveys Packer's ennui. (Another narrator, Richard Ferrone, takes over when the novel briefly switches point of view.) Poe, like DeLillo himself, manages to sound dispassionate without being cold. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 04/ JAN 05]