Falling Man (novel)

Falling Man is a 2007 published novel of U.S. writer Don DeLillo. He discusses the consequences of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 for an entangled pair in the events, as well as the thoughts of the terrorist Hammad.

The German translation was published in October 2007 Kiepenheuer & Malevich.

Content

Keith and Lianne live together with their son Justin in New York. Keith works at a law firm in the World Trade Center. Starting point of the novel are the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, in which two planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which collapsed then.

At the time of the attacks Keith is in the North Tower of the Twin Towers. He was able to escape though, but mentally disturbed by the events and encapsulates slowly from his ex-wife Lianne and their son Justin from. He begins an affair with a woman named Florence, who was in at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center. At the end of the novel way he spends almost all his time in Las Vegas and playing poker there. Consequently, lonely and Lianne lacking a stop in her life now.

In parallel with the story of Keith and Lianne, another plotline deals with the feelings and thoughts of a terrorist. Don DeLillo provides these terrorists, whose name is Hammad and dies at the end of the novel during the impact the aircraft in one of the towers, as a person is, although ultimately follows the ideology of Islamist terrorism, however, is characterized by considerable self-doubt.

Miscellaneous

• With the title Falling Man is played on a familiar, same -titled photography, which was to be found the day after the terrorist attacks in many newspapers. On it is a man to see the ( allegedly ) threw herself from the cut-off from fire upper floors of the World Trade Center and is now upside down in free fall. In the background the facade of the building can be seen. In the book, the term also refers to a performance artist who, only rudimentary backed up, usually leaves upside down rappel from buildings.
• The figure Keith is also based on a photograph dated 11 September 2001. On this filthy man with a suit and a briefcase can be seen, which is located amidst the wreckage of the World Trade Center and holds a cloth over her mouth.

Reviews

" What makes this new novel now so breathtaking is the way narrative aspect and essayistic be brought into balance, linguistically scarce, pure or as in Mao II, DeLillo or large bomb - meets- baseball novel Underworld. It is a meditation on what it means to live in these times and in these areas, as it says something breathed metaphysical DeLillo. "

" Falling Man is bulky, long stretches amazingly boring and uneventful and at the same time is a prime example of what literature is able to achieve a documentary. DeLillo provides nothing less than a seismogram of the New York emotional state after the fall of the towers. "