Long ago, I spent some time in a desert with a small group as we readied an abandoned resort for new business. We had an occasional radio station, no TV, no phones, and mail once a week (this was pre-Internet). It took awhile for the desert to sink into our brains and retrain us in the daily rhythms of an earlier era, but eventually we didn't miss those distractions. DeLillo captures that feeling of "desertness" perfectly. The conversation is intentionally vague, sparse and often overcooked to the point of philosophical brain-mush but the experience is pure Delillo mindfreakery.
Delillo was inspired by an art installation that ran the movie "Psycho" over the course of 24 hours. Slowing down makes us see new meanings in things that we wouldn't appreciate in real time. In essence, this is a story about a man with the ethical depth of a lizard reflecting abstractly on his cold-bloodedness until pain is personalized for him. Slow down and commit to this book as if it were much longer than 117 pages, and you'll be rewarded with the sort of entertainingly bizarre thoughts that come tumbling out of a desert wind.
Related: This book reminded me of the ethical dilemmas presented in a movie I recommend, The Fog of War. ~ Abbey Warner