Don DeLillo's Falling Man

I'm a pretty huge Don DeLillo fan. I've read just about everything he's written, including the plays, so I grabbed a copy of his latest novel Falling Man when it came out without knowing anything else about it. It turns out to primarily follow a survivor of the 9/11 World Trade Center collapses. My first thought upon realizing this was disappointment. DeLillo is one of the greatest living writers and this subject matter, while I'm sure personally deeply relevant since he is a Manhattanite, seemed too easy. I was won over fairly quickly however.I often describe his writing as such that you could black out entire pages except one sentence, and that one sentence made the whole page worthwhile. In the end I really enjoyed this book and count it now as one of his best. To give a sample, I've recorded myself reading a passage that describes the protagonist's poker nights with a select group of friends, some of whom were killed on 9/11. I personally have no interest in and not much experience with playing poker, but I enjoyed the imagery of this passage. It seems to compare with the arbitrary self-discipline employed by religious fanatics such as those who flew the planes into the twin towers.

A passage from Falling Man

Don DeLillo

Comments

[Michael Sippey]

[this is good] I'm a huge DeLillo fan, and while Falling Man isn't White Noise or Underworld, it's definitely up there in terms of his best books, IMHO.  He's really headed somewhere with the mix of personal and political, and despite what the reviewers said I think he filling out his characters into more than just posterboards with this one.