Vitanza: Falling Man (Novel)

Don DeLillo does an extraordinary job in Falling Man. The technique used in the writing process and the way the novel goes through the lives of each character is by far one of the mot interesting stories I have read.

The story begins with the aftermath of 9/11, and the impact it had over the citizens of New York, specifically Keith, Lianne, Justin, Nina, Martin and Florence. These characters are all linked in a way, for example; Keith is married to Lianne, they have a child named Justin etc. The relationship all of these characters have with each other is very peculiar, starting with Keith and Lianne. Nina, Lianne’s mother, is constantly reminding Lianne of her poor choice for a husband, from this remark we conclude what type of man Keith is, and not because he is a bad person, but due to his stoic state of character. Keith seems to have this ideal of life in which if something happens then let it happen, very nonchalant if I may say so.

After 9/11 the fear spread through out the people of New York is seen specifically in Justin and his friends, the siblings. When Lianne takes Justin to play with the siblings she and the siblings’ mother listen to the kids speak of this so called Bill Lawton, which later in the story we realize it is Bin Laden, which was a jaw dropping fact to me. The kids are not only terrified because of this Bill Lawton, but they are also on the look out for planes, using binoculars, spending hours looking at the sky. This portraying of fear in the novel is precisely what every New Yorker and U.S citizen felt like at the time, and possibly still today.

Not only is the story centered in the lives of these New Yorkers, but also on a group of Palestinians that reside in Marienstraße, Hamburg in Germany. Though the story of these characters, (Hammad, Amir among others), is very brief in comparison to the immensity of the novel, the right amount of information is given to the reader, and in an interesting way, in order to connect the complete story of what is known today as 9/11.