Falling Man by Don DeLillo

Falling Man
by Don DeLillo
Pub. Date: June 2008
Genre: Fiction (based on reality)
246pp

Synopsis from BN.com:
There is September 11 and then there are the days after, and finally 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, heartbreaking.

Why I Picked It:
As part of the 1% Well-Read Challenge, the title caught my attention, and then my insatiable attraction to exploring fictional portrayals of all horrifying events (I suppose it makes me feel like I can handle the events better if I pretend it's all just fiction for a while), made me select it as one of the 13 books I would read to complete this challenge.

My Review:
Don DeLillo is a new writer for me, and I completely agree with the inclusion of this book on the 1000 Books to read before you die list. This book is carefully developed, and it is brilliant. From page one, I was thinking: Mesmerizing. Intelligent. Complex. Powerful. I'll say it again, Brilliant.

The plot line is somewhat obvious in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, moving forward and circling back around to that date. We are introduced to Keith as he walks away from the buildings covered in ash, blood, broken glass embedded in his skin, carrying someone else's briefcase. He makes the simple statement, "I'm standing here." The event has awakened Keith from his prior absence from his own life and yet, he continues his own emotional free fall throughout the novel.

We meet his estranged wife Lianne, their son Justin, Lianne's mother and her German leftist lover, Martin, as they, in increasingly intense increments deal with the emotional rawness of the attacks on the Twin Towers, mostly referred to as "the planes". Even young Justin and two of his friends in their limited understanding of what has happened, embark upon their own secret quest for "Bill Lawton" (think Bin Ladin), donning binoculars, searching for more planes. We are also introduced to Hammad, one of the terrorists, as he prepares himself for what is to come, led by the man he considers genius, Mohammad Atta.

The novel is written with a certain cadence. Carrying the reader through the after effects, the conversations, as survivors are drawn to each other, discussing the bravado and boasting the twin towers represent (going so far as to say that building something so big, and then doubling it so there are TWO towers is just begging to have someone or something tear them down), middle eastern fear is born, delving into the reasons why -- political, economic, religious or is it simply fear?, the children's attempt to be heroes, and we reconnect with what is truly important in the days, weeks, and years afterward.

The cadence continues to build up to the revelation of what Keith experienced before we meet him on the street covered in glass, blood and ash... And the events explode all over again. It's not a horrific experience reading this book. It's almost healing as I was forced to remember my own emotions that day, that week and thereafter, though over 3,000 miles away from New York.

I feel I should note that the title of the book is not related to the story about the photo taken of one of the hundreds of men and women who jumped to their deaths rather than die in the fires. In fact, as I finished up the book, I Googled Don DeLillo and read that he was unaware of the title of the photo when he named his book. I was going to rewrite this info, but it's perfectly well written, and I'll include a link if you'd like to read the entire review in USA Today, though it's not an entirely favorable review like mine is.

"The title of Falling Man, however, refers to an outrageous performance artist, a secondary character whom DeLillo imagines in the days just after 9/11.

Appearing unannounced throughout New York, he attaches himself to structures, suspended upside down, wearing a suit and dress shoes. His safety harness is hidden. And as he seems to plunge to the ground, Falling Man "brought it back, of course, those stark moments in the burning towers when people fell or were forced to jump."

In the novel, spectators are outraged at the spectacle, 'the puppetry of human desperation, a body's last fleet breath and what it held.'"

~ Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today

I find Don DeLillo to be a careful master of an exploration of such recent history. There are so many layers to what happened that day, what it stirred in America, and within each of our own intimate, individual lives. I believe we all have a story that can be linked back to that day, and DeLillo presents us with one of his own making.

I'm now very anxious to read another novel by DeLillo, Libra, which was my original choice for this challenge, as it explores the assassination of JFK.