I read Falling Man recently, coincidentally during the ten year anniversary of 9-11. I was pleased with the read, but not blown away as I have been by some of DeLillo's other novels (see: Underworld, Mao II). Some of the less-than-scholarly reviews I've seen on the Internet have described the characters as hollow, one-dimensional or dysfunctional. This entirely misses the real strength of the book for me at least-- the dispassionate narration and stark point-of-view shifts (the real wallop comes when DeLillo shifts to the terrorists' POV).

With a book of this breadth, expecting the characters, which are quite numerous, to be richly portrayed and fully developed is akin to walking into Mastro's and asking for a well done steak smothered in gravy.

Best to leave the grown-up literature to the grown-ups, Nancy Drew.

I found nothing particularly human or comedic about Saroyan's most famous novel. After suffering through 30 pages or so, the thought occurred that here is a poor facsimile of Twain: unfortunately, the ink cartridge emptied its contents before the transmission was complete.