[lit-ideas] Don DeLillo's _Falling Man_ brief excerpt
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:12:57 -0400
From _Falling Man_, page 74. Husband and wife are
discussing their daughter and her young friends, who
have reacted to 9/11 by mythologizing. DeLillo's very
deft here. -EY
"So, together," he said, "they developed the myth
of Bill Lawton."
"Katie's got to know the real name. She's way too
smart. She probably keeps the other name going
precisely because it's the wrong name."
"I guess that's the idea. That's the myth."
"Bill Lawton."
"Searching the skies for Bill Lawton. He told me
some things before he clammed up."
"One thing I like. I like knowing the answer to
the riddle before Isabel knows."
"Who's that?
"The Siblings' mother."
"What about her blood and pain?"
She laughed at that. But the thought of them at
the window, with the door closed, searching the skies,
continued to disturb her.
"Bill Lawton has a long beard. He wears a long
robe," he said. "He flies jet planes and speaks
thirteen languages but not English except to his wives.
What else? He has the power to poison what we eat but
only certain foods. They're working on the list."
"This is what we get for putting a protective
distance between children and news events."
"Except we didn't put a distance, not really," he
said.
"Between children and mass murderers."
"The other thing he does, Bill Lawton, is go
everywhere in his bare feet."
"They killed your best friend. They're fucking
outright murderers. Two friends, two friends."
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