How do we reflect on the 9/11 events? In different times or perhaps different cultures, composers would turn to the Requiem as a way to honor the past. If Don DeLillo story, Falling Man, was a Requiem, it would be done by the post-modern Philip Glass. Glass writes in syncopated verses and sometimes with hidden motifs that take a long time to surface. DeLilo's Falling Man is the story of a family. Keith, the father, was in the towers when the first plane hit. As the story unfolds, he is on the street looking for anything meaningful after the blast. He ends up at his estranged wife's home and we see the effects of 9/11 through the lives of these two characters and their extended families and friends. DeLilo's style is choppy and short and since I listened to this book, I found it hard to immediately understand what was going on because conversational threads aren't attributed to their speakers and when spoken by a single narrator, the audio story becomes even choppier. What DeLilo describes is the punctuated disruption, reflection, and further isolation of the 9/11 attacks. I don't think this is mandatory reading, but in the end I enjoyed the time I spent with the book.

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