Bibliophiles may track with the tendency to read an author’s oeuvre. That is my pattern.

For this December, I have elected Don DeLillo as my writer whose works to read through.

Tonight I am away from my loved ones, and so I will read the slim volume The Silence.

I have read DeLillo’s acknowledged masterpieces–Underworld and White Noise.

Both are tomes–quite heavy novels, novels of ideas and of several hundred pages each. But now I’m reading through the balance of his body of work. Some of them, like The Silence, are just over 100 pages, an easy read on a quiet evening.

DeLillo’s enduring themes involve questions regarding the predominance of technology in our lives; the increasing imposition and power of government/bureaucracy; the loss of the individual; and the fate of the individual–especially the artist–and his/her creation (art), whether that’s a play, a poem, a painting, a sculpture, a short story, a novel, a dance, a symphony, or an opera.

I miss my loved ones, miss our critters on my lap as I wrap up in a blanket as I study.

But I’m grateful for quiet evenings, too, because they make me appreciate the times I do get to be at home with them, and going to our church, being with the body, singing the hymns, fellowshipping, and confessing the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.