The defining moment of turn-of-the-21st-century America is perfectly portrayed in National
Book Award winner Don DeLillo''s
Falling Man.
The book takes its title from the electrifying photograph of the man
who jumped or fell from the North Tower on 9/11. It also refers to a
performance artist who recreates the picture. The artist straps himself
into a harness and in high visibility areas jumps from an elevated
structure, such as a railway overpass or a balcony, startling passersby
as he hangs in the horrifying pose of the falling man. Keith
Neudecker, a lawyer and survivor of the
attack, arrives on his
estranged wife Lianne''s doorstep, covered with soot and blood, carrying
someone else''s briefcase. In the days and weeks that follow, moments of
connection alternate with complete withdrawl from his wife and young
son, Justin. He begins a desultory affair with the owner of the
briefcase based only on their shared experience of surviving: "the
timeless drift of the long spiral down." Justin uses his binoculars to
scan the skies with his friends, looking for "Bill Lawton" (a
misunderstood version of bin Laden) and more killing planes. Lianne
suddenly
sees Islam everywhere: in a postcard from a friend, in a
neighbor''s music--and is frightened and angered by its ubiquity. She is
riveted by the Falling Man. Her mother Nina''s response is to break up
with her long-time German lover over his ancient politics. In short,
the old ways and days are gone forever; a
new reality has taken over
everyone''s consciousness. This new way is being tried on, and it
doesn''t fit. Keith and Lianne weave into reconciliation. Keith becomes
a professional poker player and, when questioned by Lianne about the
future of this enterprise, he thinks: "There was one final thing, too
self-evident to need saying. She wanted to be safe in the
world and he
did not." DeLillo also tells the story of Hammad, one of the
young men in flight training on the Gulf Coast, who says: "We are
willing to die, they are not. This is our srength, to love death, to
feel the claim of armed martyrdom." He also asks: "But does a man have
to kill himself in order to accomplish something in the world?" His
answer is that he is one of the hijackers on the plane that strikes the
North Tower. At the end of the book, De Lillo takes the reader
into the Tower as the plane strikes the building. Through all the
terror, fire and smoke, De Lillo''s voice is steady as a metronome,
recounting exactly what happens to Keith as he sees friends and
co-workers maimed and dead, navigates the stairs and, ultimately, is
saved. Though several post-9/11
novels have been written, not one of
them is as compellingly true, faultlessly conceived, and beautifully
written as Don De Lillo''s Falling Man.
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