[spookybones]

I absolutely love Delillo and agree with you, though Pynchon too still resonates for me. That said, I'm allergic to absolutes. I do not agree with Nabakov. Stylized prose and dialogue should be read as a dialogue with the author because his/her voice saturates the page. Other authors strive for invisibility, for the reader to merge with their characters. I doubt, say, Nabakov could write an uneducated character that we could live vicariously through. His alliteration and punctilious prose would diminish the effect. He would also avoid clichés like the plague, though these are often expressed in natural dialogue.