Great Jones Street (novel)
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| Great Jones Street | |
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| Author | Don DeLillo |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 265 pp (Hardback first edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-395-15566-5 |
Published in 1973, Great Jones Street is Don DeLillo's third novel. It centers on rock star Bucky Wunderlick, who also narrates the novel. There is a good deal of surreal imagery. Running Dog, a parody of Rolling Stone introduced in Great Jones Street, would later play a central role in DeLillo's 1978 novel of the same name.
[edit] Plot and characters
Dissatisfied with the life that his fame, fortune, and revolutionary image has bought, Wunderlick retreats to an unfurnished apartment on Great Jones Street in Manhattan and tries to pare things down. His girlfriend arrives with a sample of a drug that wreaks havoc on the language centers of the brain. His possession of the drug, as well as his iconic status in the counterculture, attract the attention of a domestic terrorist organization known as the Happy Valley Farm Commune. A skinhead-like offshoot known as the Dog Boys also rampages through Wunderlick's apartment building.
Bob Dylan is reputed to be one of the models for the character of Bucky Wunderlick. A key subplot involves the theft of Bucky's unreleased "Mountain Tapes." These are clearly inspired by Dylan's "Basement Tapes", which would not be released until the summer of 1975 and were still shrouded in mystery. Ambitious but neurotic guitarist Azarian reflects less-than-complimentary stories about The Band's Robbie Robertson. Wunderlick's general sense of withdrawal and contrariness fit the public image of Dylan.
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