Falling Man (1999)

A two is harsh; it's really between 2 and 3. I'm glad I read it, though it just wasn't quite to my taste. The dialogue seems flat and unrealistic, staged: what they say may be believable, but how they say it isn't. Many questions end with periods instead of question marks, which makes it sound flat, and they speak with few contractions, which makes it seem stiff.

That said, I folded down many pages to mark sentences that were particularly clear and beautiful. Furthermore - because the flap copy is relatively uninformative - I was pleasantly surprised that the book contained the added dimension of sections from the point of view of "the nineteen," in addition to the main characters in New York. And I like the way he plays with time. ( )

Moments of pretty compelling prose, but even in those moments I got distracted by the slightly 'stuttering,' repetitious style. It was a bit more difficult for me to empathize with the characters than I thought it should have, considering the subject matter, which is why I rated it as such. I actually think it deserves 2.5 stars. ( )

I've been dying to read this, I was so excited the library had this in audio!

UPDATE:
Alright, I've tried. I don't know whether it was because I was listening to it or that my thoughts in my head are that distracting. But I've learned that if a book is really interesting nothing in my head can distract me that much. I'm on disc 2 and I just can't pay attention. I think I'm going to have to give up. My goal was to finish this week, but if I can't pay attention, what's the point? When I find myself more interested listening about the Yellow River on NPR I know it's not a good book. Oh well... ( )

I thought I didn't dislike this at the time, but now I realize I did. It's been two years and I barely remember it. I just get this sense of 'bleah' whenever I think about it--like that guy you fuck so he'll just go home. I don't think I liked 'Underworld' very much either. ( )

Well, I think this book was really insightful but probably not the best choice for around Christmas time. I think it's a well written novel but as a flaw it was difficult for me to get into the characters. DeLillo sometimes pulls of the disjointedness of his novels well but this time the storyline suffered for me because of it. I think a better book to read that concerns fiction and the human experience surrounding 911 is Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but if you are a fan of DeLillo, this is still a worthwhile read. ( )