Great Jones Street Summary
Don Delillo

Great Jones Street Summary

Drugs and rock music are the overt topics of Great Jones Street, which some readers might be inclined to treat as a roman a clef, searching for clues to the true identity of rock star Bucky Wunderlick (Jagger? Dylan? Jim Morrison?), although such a question is clearly irrelevant. The central question is the relationship between the public persona and the "self." There is no presupposed answer, and certainly not the conventional humanistic answer — the "self" is real, the persona a sham and artificial creation. There is no lack of artificiality, no question that rumor and publicity are at least as "real" as the private self. Bucky Wunderlick hears constant reports of his whereabouts and exploits, while he, and the reader, are well aware that he has been nowhere (except on Great Jones Street) and done little or nothing (except listen to other people...

(read more from the Short Guide)