Fallende M�nner - Don DeLillo und 9/11

[bekah]

I just finished it and I think it's the best 9/11 book to date (I've 
read those by Foer, Messud and McEwan but not Updike)   I can see the 
"trying to please everyone" criticism as valid and it sometimes felt 
like a replay of a lot of his prior works (except Underworld) but I 
thought that the idea of  the major characters being cast into a 
debilitating state of dementia and resultant obsessive behavior 
mechanisms was new and quite interesting.

one woman's o
Bekah



At 1:49 PM +1000 5/17/07, John BAILEY wrote:
>Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 asked whether it's possible to say 
>anything intelligent about a massacre. DeLillo's Falling Man is a 
>pretty disappointing answer.
>
>To me it came across as saying "that event must have really been 
>traumatic" followed by a blank stare. Maybe a shrug.
>
>Would be great to see someone trying to find a new form that would 
>allow us to think 9/11 through, the way Vonnegut, Pynchon and the 
>like kinda re-invented the novel in the 60s and 70s.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] 
>On Behalf Of Dave Monroe
>Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2007 6:35 PM
>To: Pynchon List
>Cc: Tim Grair; jameskrivitz at wi.rr.com; Judith Turner; 
>turnerswake at prodigy.net; Sean McNally
>Subject: Fallende Männer - Don DeLillo und 9/11
>
>Fallende Männer - Don DeLillo und 9/11
>
>Amerika und die Welt warten auf den gültigen Roman über den 11.
>September. Bisher vergeblich, obwohl sich etliche Schriftsteller 
>daran versuchten. Jetzt legt auch Groß-Autor Don DeLillo, Experte 
>für Bedrohung, Terror und Paranoia, ein Buch vor: "Falling Man"....
>
>http://www.welt.de/kultur/article872189/Fallende_Maenner_-_Don_DeLillo_und_911.html
>
>Die Welt 15.05.2007
>
>After Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon, John Updike and Ian McEwan, now 
>Don DeLillo has brough out a 9/11 novel, and for a somewhat resigned 
>Wieland Freund, the question is not so much whether but how "Falling 
>Man" would disappoint. For Freund the book is bogged down in theses.
>"As if to say 'Look, us too!' DeLillo drags a leftist terrorist onto 
>the stage, with the best intentions he has a certain Omar H. suffer 
>from Alzheimer's and the final emotive scene, when an abandoned 
>briefcase is passed from person to person in the stairwell of the 
>toppling tower, was undoubtedly written hand on heart. In moments 
>like this the novel disappoints, precisely because it is so 
>determined not to disappoint anyone."
>
>http://www.signandsight.com/intodaysfeuilletons/1345.html
>
>Is that SUPPOSED to sound like Sein und Zeit (Heidegger)?  Hm ...
>
>
>The information contained in this e-mail message and any 
>accompanying files is or may be confidential. If you are not the 
>intended recipient, any use, dissemination, reliance, forwarding, 
>printing or copying of this e-mail or any attached files is 
>unauthorised. This e-mail is subject to copyright. No part of it 
>should be reproduced, adapted or communicated without the written 
>consent of the copyright owner. If you have received this e-mail in 
>error please advise the sender immediately by return e-mail or 
>telephone and delete all copies. Fairfax does not guarantee the 
>accuracy or completeness of any information contained in this e-mail 
>or attached files. Internet communications are not secure, therefore 
>Fairfax does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of 
>this message or attached files.