''Falling Man'' is a novel by American writer
Don DeLillo
Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as consumerism, nuclear war, the complexities of language, art, televi ...
, published May 15, 2007. An excerpt from the novel appeared in short story form as "Still Life" in the April 9, 2007, issue of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' magazine.
''Falling Man'' concerns a survivor of the
9/11
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
attacks and the effect his experiences on that day have on his life thereafter.
Themes
Like DeLillo's previous works, the novel is thematically concerned with the symbolic nature of
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
violence portrayed through the mass media. In addition, DeLillo's narrative examines the possibilities of reinventing individual identity as well as the tendency of individuals to construct their identities through a group mentality. The Falling Man himself is symbolic of "the hubris of trying to make art out of horror."
Reception
On ''
Bookmarks'' May/June 2007 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (3.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with the critical summary stating, "This is a stark, intensely personal story that provokes some equally impassioned—and sharply divided—responses". Globally, ''
Complete Review'' saying on the consensus "No consensus, though the majority seem quite impressed".
Michiko Kakutani
is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.
Early life and family
Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...
writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' considered it a disappointment, saying that although "flashes of Mr. DeLillo’s extraordinary gifts for language can be found in his depiction of the surreal events Keith witnessed on 9/11 ... the remainder of the novel feels tired and brittle."
World Socialist Web Site
The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is the website of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). It describes itself as an "online newspaper of the international Trotskyist movement".
About
The WSWS was established on Fe ...
critic Sandy English concluded that parts of the novel were "moving, and one can learn something about the reactions of a particular social layer in New York at the time," but as a whole it "does not succeed as a unified work of art. It falls short of the significance of the events themselves."
Some critics were more positive: both Laura Miller in ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
'' and Jennifer Reese in ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' described it as DeLillo's best novel since ''
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
'' in 1997, with Miller noting that "DeLillo is a master of the prose riff, and there are a few riffs in here as good as anything he's ever produced."
See also
*
September 11, 2001 attacks in popular culture
References
External links
Excerpt from ''The New Yorker'', April 2007
by Adam Mars-Jones
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falling Man (Novel)
2007 American novels
Novels by Don DeLillo
Novels about the September 11 attacks