Before The Fall by Noah Hawley– 400 pages
ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing
Book Blurb:
On a foggy summer night, eleven people—ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter—depart Martha’s Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs—the painter—and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul’s family. As the passengers’ intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage.
My Review: 4 stars
Before We Fall is so much more of a mystery and excellent characterization of people and life than its hype as a “thriller”. And yes, this book has been hyped in the biggest way!
My favorite part of this book was the writing. It was eloquent, smart, well constructed and often existentialist. Hawley has his own fandom in the bag, as he’s also the writer and executive producer for the highly watched and regarded TV series, Fargo. He’s got a knack for dialogue and situational tension, which I’m sure he’s comfortable with based on his background.
Back to my opening statement about this book being a mystery and not a thriller. The mystery is really about why the plane crashed and to uncover it, we have get the back-stories of all the passengers on the plane. Those histories are the clues the reader gets from the past to keep them guessing. There’s a few plots going on in this book. There’s also the plot of the media and its roll in spin, situation and “truth”. There’s the plot of rich man vs. poor man and how that plays in our society’s judgment of one another. And then finally, there’s the plotline of Jack Lalanne, the G-dfather of Fitness, and his impact on our protagonist as a young boy. The profundity of it was well done.
Well-paced novel that both men and women will enjoy. Perfect for a day at the beach, as long as you’re not flying to your destination!
Quotes I liked:
Anything is possible. Everything is gettable. You just have to want it badly enough.”
-“We all become caricatures of ourselves, if we live long enough”
-“Everyone is from someplace. We all have stories, our lives unfolding along crooked lines, colliding in unexpected ways.”
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