Falling Man by Don DeLillo

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Written by Book Reviews

Through the twisted wreckage of buildings, politics and lives, Don DeLillo architects a grand design on most hallowed ground. The "Falling Man" is DeLillo's vivid personalization of the horrific events of 9/11 and its aftermath. The book reveals the human dramas of that great tragedy through juxtaposing emotions:

the fear and the courage, the broken and the healed, and the urgent and the steadfast. DeLillo lifts the story above the simple metaphors commercialized in the media and, engages in honest dialog rather than the flagellated diatribe of opportunistic pundits.
The story centers on a family in crisis whose remarkable characters are victims of both 9/11 and their own eccentricities. The sometimes husband and wife, Keith and Lianne revive their marriage bonds when he arrives at her apartment, debris-ridden and injured from the Trade Center.

The autopilot marriage slowly disengages as their post-9/11 pursuits pull them apart. Even their young son, Justin, is part of a Greek Chorus for the disasters yet to come. The young Chorus may childishly envision "Ben Lawton" in their future, but indeed we continue to suffer the apocalyptic evil he personifies.

Nina, Lianne's mother, and her never-husband, Martin, are vehicles for the mores and conventional judgments that measure our societal worth.
In the end though, what matters most to DeLillo is the individual right of self-determination and expression. Our actions during life's free-fall are our true worth.

Keith and Lianne are flawed, but are compassionate, decent and will endure.

The terrorist claiming piety confronts his mortality not in the arms of restless virgins, rather he discovers a fuselage of shrapnel, flames, and ashes. He is ultimately to be exhaled by the Towers, joining his victims in one final, mighty breath.

Then heaven can truly judge him for his humanity.

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