Books and other stuff I feel like discussing
By education and experience - Accountant with a specialty in taxation. Formerly a CPA (license has lapsed). Masters degree in law of taxation from University of Denver. Now retired. Part time work during baseball season as receptionist & switchboard operator for the Colorado Rockies. This gig feeds my soul in ways I have trouble articulating. One daughter, and four grandchildren. I share the house with two cats; a big goof of a cat called Grinch (named as a joke for his easy going "whatever" disposition); and Lady, a shelter adoptee with a regal bearing and sweet little soprano voice. I would be very bereft if it ever becomes necessary to keep house without a cat.
Mood:
Grumpy
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Something touched a nerve
I just finished FALLING MAN by Don DeLillo. I haven't read anything else he has written, although I've been interested in a couple of previous titles, just never picked them up at the library or the remainder table.
I read a lot of advance praise for this one, he follows a small group of survivors of the collapsing towers on 9/11, and the immediate family of one of them. He imagines a performance artist recreating the grim photographs of people leaping from the towers as a source for the title.
Memory, grief and loss, and the role of coincidence, luck and chance are recurring themes throughout the book, which moves in a somewhat jerky style, with interwoven flashbacks, and a sudden move forward to a time close to the present.
The pace of the book comes to abrupt and chilling coherence in the last ten pages, when DeLillo finally turns to portraying what the moment of impact must have been like. At that point the experience of reading the first two hundred pages comes close to seeming worthwhile.
But to refer to the nerve I mentioned in the blog header. This is not the first "post 9/11" book I have read. I can think of at least four titles which covered this theme - SMALL TOWN by Lawrence Block; ABSENT FRIENDS by S J Rozan; ONCE IN A PROMISED LAND by Laila Halaby; and THE ZERO by Jess Walter. I would not be surprised to learn that there are other books as well. With the possible exception of Halaby, the authors mentioned publish most often in the suspense genre.
I guess I'm annoyed that a big name like DeLillo can come out with a book heralded as "the first post 9/11 novel" when there are several other titles, all of high quality, which have preceded his, but were not published in what some critics term the "literary" genre.
I did notice that the two reviewers for the New York Times were split 50/50 on FALLING MAN - one full of praise, the other not. Hmmm -
I read a lot of advance praise for this one, he follows a small group of survivors of the collapsing towers on 9/11, and the immediate family of one of them. He imagines a performance artist recreating the grim photographs of people leaping from the towers as a source for the title.
Memory, grief and loss, and the role of coincidence, luck and chance are recurring themes throughout the book, which moves in a somewhat jerky style, with interwoven flashbacks, and a sudden move forward to a time close to the present.
The pace of the book comes to abrupt and chilling coherence in the last ten pages, when DeLillo finally turns to portraying what the moment of impact must have been like. At that point the experience of reading the first two hundred pages comes close to seeming worthwhile.
But to refer to the nerve I mentioned in the blog header. This is not the first "post 9/11" book I have read. I can think of at least four titles which covered this theme - SMALL TOWN by Lawrence Block; ABSENT FRIENDS by S J Rozan; ONCE IN A PROMISED LAND by Laila Halaby; and THE ZERO by Jess Walter. I would not be surprised to learn that there are other books as well. With the possible exception of Halaby, the authors mentioned publish most often in the suspense genre.
I guess I'm annoyed that a big name like DeLillo can come out with a book heralded as "the first post 9/11 novel" when there are several other titles, all of high quality, which have preceded his, but were not published in what some critics term the "literary" genre.
I did notice that the two reviewers for the New York Times were split 50/50 on FALLING MAN - one full of praise, the other not. Hmmm -
Read/Post Comments (2)
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