Underworld has the distinction of being the first book I have put down (in many senses of the phrase) since The Adventures of Augie March in the eighth grade (sorry, Saul Bellow). The setting is dark and not really evocative of its period or its place. The gimmick of having the characters live backwards through the narrative is just that. The female characters are poorly drawn, and the male characters carry around so much angst that they sink below ground. I am both a Cold War kid and a hazardous waste professional, and Delillo needs a get a life more pertinent to mine. All in all, you can indeed fool all of the reviewers at least one time.