Falling Man

A Novel

De: Don DeLillo

Narrado por: John Slattery

Falling Man is a magnificent, essential novel about the event that defines turn-of-the-century America. It begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and tracks the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few people.

There is September 11 and then there are the days after—and the years.

Falling Man is a magnificent, essential novel about the event that defines turn-of-the-century America. It begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and tracks the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few people. First there is Keith, walking out of the rubble into a life that he’d always imagined belonged to everyone but him. Then Lianne, his estranged wife, memory-haunted, trying to reconcile two versions of the same shadowy man. And their small son Justin, standing at the window, scanning the sky for more planes. These are lives choreographed by loss, grief, and the enormous force of history.

Brave and brilliant, Falling Man traces the way the events of September 11 have reconfigured our emotional landscape, our memory, and our perception of the world. It is cathartic, beautiful, and heartbreaking.©2007 Don DeLillo. All rights reserved; (P)2007 Simon and Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Complicated

The story is fragmented and the pieces of story fall short of the larger themes DeLillo seems to be reaching for.

Confusing

The book was hard to follow as to the characters. The last chapter was less confusing.

Mixed feelings

As my professor who taught this book told our class, "This may not be the book about 9/11 you want, but it is the book you need". DeLillo is definitely an interesting writer and I have to say, after reading several of his books, I'm not really the biggest fan of his style. That being said, this is a very "real" book. It may be fictionalization, but it's certainly not a fairy tale, which is something people "need" in a book about 9/11. In terms of the audiobook, I thought the narrator did a pretty good job considering how hard DeLillo's dialogue can be to follow (and he was MUCH better than the narrator for "Libra").

Nobody Has Any Fun in This Book

"the point is... invalidation," one of the characters says. Or something like that. That is the point of this book, alright.
This book is lots of thought, no wisdom.
Lots of mulling and self absorption and obsession. No passion. Just mindless repetition.

Is Delillo saying this is what happens when there's a major tragedy?
Is he saying that humanity has so little energy, so little humility, so little imagination, so little humor?
Yes. That's what he's saying.
Dust thou art to dust returnest. Is what he's saying.

I think the man's in need of an anti-depressant.
God, what a deadly group of characters.
No more Delillo for me.

Excrutiating

It took me three months to finish this book. I wish I had read it instead of listened to it. The narrator was monotonous and hard to follow, he had no emotion in his voice. I got bored and would have to stop for days before I would try again.