In The Moment, Chaotic, Confusing--Ultimately Numbing

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	• Falling Man: A Novel Don DeLillo Scribner, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 83 reviews view larger image
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Well written, but not completely satisfying

I think the success of a novel like Falling Man hinges on the degree to which the author's characters engage the reader. As much as I appreciate the quality of DeLillo's writing, I can't say that these characters ever got into my head, ever got under my skin. I didn't think about them between readings while I read the novel, and now, having finished Falling Man almost a week ago, I can't say that I've thought much about it since.

The novel's weakness is inherent to the story. The characters, while realistic, have limited emotional range. They are disoriented and disconnected as a result of 9/11 and subsequently, this is reflected in the novel. Presumably this is the point, but the result is Falling Man didn't make much of an impression on me.

Falling Man is beautifully written and raises some provocative questions about faith and our place in the world post 9/11 but it also feels empty and in the end, not completely satisfying.

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Exactly what he should have done.

A careful, surreal, and gentle novel about the 9/11 event and its aftermath. Somehow DeLillo manages to simultaneously capture the immediacy, the chaos of 9/11 and still offer a subtle and humane assessment of America's collective actions since then (our disastrous war, our resurgent racisms). This is an accomplishment. But you can read other books for that.

Ultimately, "Falling Man" is a novel of a nation's collective grief. It is fitting that DeLillo - the last of the great Modernists - should weigh in on the traumatic beginning of the 21st Century with a book like this: balanced politically, devoid of conspiracy, and relentlessly sad. DeLillo has written a book for posterity here, an emotional chronicle. We will read it 50 years from now (along with "Underworld", to which "Falling Man" is the true sequel), as we wonder how our triumphant Idealistic Century came to an end, yielding finally to the (so-far) nihilistic 21st

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In The Moment, Chaotic, Confusing--Ultimately Numbing

Don Delillo is widely recognized as being one of America's finest postmodern writers. With "Falling Man," the author unleashed his mature and formidable talents in a heroic effort to create the quintessential 9/11 novel. But did he succeed?

Delillo is famous for his exquisite writing and carefully crafted prose. He is also noted for novels that focus on important contemporary social issues. That he would eventually turn his talents toward writing a book about 9/11 is not surprising.

"Falling Man" is an extremely difficult book to read. First of all, the subject matter is emotionally disturbing. But the real difficulty comes with Delillo's choice to write this novel in a seemingly chaotic literary style. The author does everything he can to put the reader off-balance--to make the reader unsure about the "who, when, and why" of practically every segment. The prose is disjointed. It is easy to find yourself totally lost and confused. But that is exactly the emotional state that Delillo wants his readers to be in. He wants his readers to feel that they are in the chaos of the moment, experiencing, through artful prose, this most bewildering of world events. Life lived in the moment is jerky and disjointed. On this point, the author succeeds brilliantly; however, just like the original event, this literary event can leave the reader completely benumbed.

The plot concerns 9/11 survivor Keith Neudecker. In the opening chapter, we find Keith staggering out of the North Tower, encrusted in soot, grime, and blood, wandering the streets of New York. The animal part of his brain guides him toward home, but not to his own place, rather toward the apartment of his estranged wife, Lianne, and their young child, Justin. They comfort each other in shock and start living together once again as a family. Over the course of the next few weeks, we meet other essential and superfluous characters that populate this couple's life during the weeks following September 11th. We get to see how these characters interact with one another. Delillo focuses on human behavior through a microscope. We never see the whole picture at once. We view every interaction through a chaotic mix of tiny snippets. In our minds we create the overall picture, and it is one of people in deep emotional pain and turmoil--people trying desperately to transition to a new reality anyway they can.

Delillo's goal is to put the reader in the experience, not to explain what caused this catastrophe or how to avoid further incidents like this in the future. The plot is really not that compelling. Like the chaotic, jerky prose, the plot is disjointed and unsettling.

And to make all this even worse, the author's purposeful chaotic prose and plot devices make it virtually impossible for him to deliver characters that the reader cares about. The characters in this book are altogether emotionally remote, not only from themselves and each other, but from the reader, as well.

"Falling Man" comes tantalizingly close being the quintessential novel about 9/11, but on many levels the novel falls short. What the book does best is to recreate the feeling of being there, and actually living through those hellish events. Perhaps it will read better with future generation of readers who have not directly experienced the events of 9/11.

Despite its undeniable sparkling and brilliant prose, "Falling Man" was, for me, disturbingly dull. Then why am I so pleased that I read this difficult book? Perhaps because on some visceral level, I am amazed that an author has it in his power to put me once again in the moment of that unforgettable event. So, I recommend it to those who want to live or relive the 9/11 experience. I also recommend it to readers who want to experience a unique, but ultimately flawed, display of Don Delillo's literary talents.

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The Flaws are Too Great to Ignore

DeLillo is to be commended for being the first of the major modern novelists to tackle 9/11. He does an admirable job of portraying the chaos of the events and their traumatic and hollowing effect on survivors and on Americans generally.

He jumps around in time, which is probably the appropriate device to convey the confusion and overwhelming nature of these events. His description of the scene inside the tower is done with remarkable economy and force. These are the best written passages of the novel. The ending scene of the shirt fluttering to ground has the ring of James Joyce's falling snow at the end of "The Dead" and is quite moving.

On the other hand: this guy can't write dialogue. His dialogue is neither compelling nor even believable. It's painful to read such good writing juxtaposed with such awful dialogue.

Character development (another fairly important part of novel writing) is also lacking. And some plot devices -- like Keith's affair with Florence -- seem totally contrived. I don't think two people would have an affair under those circumstances. I can see two survivors of the Towers having a very strong bond. But the sex seems gratuitous. It's as if you can see DeLillo thinking, "Hmmm, what happens next?... I know, let's have them f**k."

I continue to be disappointed with DeLillo as a writer. He's certainly a literary force to be reckoned with, but his flaws are too great to ignore.

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