I just finished reading Don DeLillo's first novel, Americana, and I don't really have much to say about it at the moment except how interesting it is to find the seeds of a writer's later, better work so early on. This is not to say that Americana doesn't stand on its own two feet or on its own merits -- just that the way DeLillo's later preoccupations are presaged by this text is quite striking, and a bit disconcerting.

It's the sort of thing that makes you wonder just how many good ideas one person has, and perhaps explains why even the best artists seem only to repeat themselves as time goes on.