DeLillo's Underworld, Take Two. 
 A bunch of characters. New York. Decades long. All stories link to a seminal event that serves as a metaphor of different things to different people. 
 McCann does DeLillo better, though. While both novels are heavy and everything is a metaphor for how loaded with stuff life is, in Underworld all of its characters use the same lens, the same DeLillo Dictionary of Metaphors, the same voice with different filters like an instagrammed narrative. McCann, on the other hand, makes a dozen individuals whose actions are influenced by vastly different creation myths, life experiences, and DNA. 
 This novel gave me exactly what I didn't know was missing from DeLillo's novel a few weeks ago.