Having been reading The Names recently, DeLillo is certainly brilliant. For an author often grouped in with the American “maximalist” authors mentioned by sibling commenters like Pynchon and Gaddis, I have appreciated DD perhaps even more for his subtle and sensitive dialogue and exploration of interpersonal interaction. The lead and his ex-partner in The Names have that sense of tired accustomedness to their relationship which is hard to neatly encapsulate.