So I guess this is where I just throw out some thoughts for my devoted readers to fawn over.
I honestly can't tell if I like this story or not. I feel like it's a plateau. One huge, expansive plateau. And granted, I still have a third of the book to go - maybe that's where all the action is. But so far, I feel like it's all been on one level. I feel like I'm still being introduced to new characters, new situations, and I'm just anxiously waiting for them to do something provocative or dramatic. It doesn't seem to be working out that way. They just continue on with thier lives and nothing really exciting happens.
But I guess that's the point. Because that's what the characters are doing right? Just trying to continue on with thier lives? Trying to push through the emotional aftermath and get back to "normalcy"?
I don't know. I guess because it was a novel about 9/11, I thought Falling Man would be dramatic event followed by dramatic event followed by dramatic event. But the plot seems...mundane. Boring. Plain. I still feel like I'm reading the introduction before the rising action, but there isn't that much left of the book. It's like when you're reading Harry Potter. You know the first hundred pages or so are all just introductory info, and that there is so much drama and excitement the last hundred pages that it's totally going to be worth it to have all of the background you plowed through at the start of the book. I have a feeling that isn't going to be happening with this novel. I feel that it is going to end the way it started - slowly.
However, although I call it slow, I can't help but continue to read it. And it is going pretty quickly. Before I know it, I am 50 pages further than when I sat down. I feel compelled to go onto the next chapter. But why? I think the subconcious force behind the interest in the plot is that I am still clinging to a hope for some dramzz. That maybe in this last portion, all the stops will be pulled out and I'll be blown away.
And I'm still waiting to find out the relevance of the Islamic men to the lives of Keith and Lianne. Are they ever going to interact? Will thier stories come together somehow? Why do the men only get 1/5 of the page space that the other characters do? Why are they even included in the first place?
I guess I'll find out. Or at least I hope I do.
"I think the subconcious force behind the interest in the plot is that I am still clinging to a hope for some dramzz." Hahaha...I couldn't agree with your more! The further I go, the worse it gets. I can't help but feel that I truly have no idea what this is novel is about. I too, feel that there really hasn't been much development throughout. The only character I feel remotely connected to is Lianne result of her relationship with the Alzheimer's patients. We see into her thoughts about God and death, etc. She has so many more dimensions. Maybe in some creative way Delillo has made most of his characters appear to be flat because they feel like they are still just going through the motions...that they aren't really feeling anything, hence the robots. But I don't know. If so, I don't really care for this tactic, as artsy as it may be. I am also curious about the Islamic men...maybe Delillo felt like he could only get into their characters "so much" and therefore didn't want to overstep his bounds when he has no idea what those people were/are actually like. Research can only get one so far, but who knows. And you raise a good question--why are they even included? Maybe he is just trying to show their humanity...that just because of their actions, they are not necessarily bad people? I don't know...hmm...I will have to ponder this more...
ReplyDeleteWow...and I can't believe I just used the words "those people"...what worse way is there to sound elegant as a writer/aware as a person of society?! I apologize for my lack of sensitivity result of major exhaustion (as you can also note multiple grammatical errors).
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm not a huge fan of this book either- not because I find it boring or mundane or anything like that, but everything just really seems so unrelatable and I guess, having lived through it myself, I was expecting to have that sense of understanding. I still don't feel like I know the characters and the point at which it switched into Hammad's narrative, I was just thrown off entirely.
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