Americana (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Americana
title_orig =
translator =


author = Don DeLillo
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
release_date = 1971
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 388 pp (HB 1st edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-395-12094-2
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Americana" is Don DeLillo's first novel, published in 1971. In 1989 DeLillo revised the text, excising several pages from the original.Fact|date=July 2007

Plot summary

The book is narrated by David Bell, a former television executive turned avant-garde filmmaker. Beginning with an exploration of the malaise of the modern corporate man, the novel turns into an interrogation of film's power to misrepresent reality as Bell creates an autobiographical road-movie. The story addresses roots of American pathology and introduces themes DeLillo will expand upon in "The Names", "White Noise", and "Libra". The first half of the novel can be viewed as a critique of the corporate world while the second half articulates the fears and dilemmas of contemporary American life.