Book Review: Falling Man

Falling Man by Don DeLillo

There should be little doubt that DeLillo is a master of sorts. While I still have to catch up and read much of his work, this novel proves his ability. Falling Man is purposefully despondent. Surrounding characters touched by the collapse of the World Trade Center and taking place in the moments, weeks and months after the events of 9/11, the novel shows characters out of sorts. The narration is sparse, ephemeral. The course taken by the characters, the novel's plot itself, though, does not seem well thought out. The characters float, and I think this is also purposeful, but they float away from us.

I probably wouldn't recommend this book to someone unless they were looking to read more DeLillo or were looking into post-9/11 literature, but somewhere in the narration, the mode of this novel is a model for writing I would like to try in the near future.