Barbara’s Pick
October 2016
Before the Fall
Noah Hawley
Published May 31, 2016
If you don’t read the cover (or dust jacket, if you are old-fashioned and buy the hardcover book), you may be surprised that at the end of the first chapter all but two of the characters you have just met are killed in a plane crash between Martha’s Vineyard and Teterboro. The only survivors—a past-his-prime painter whose specialty is painting disasters (like tornadoes and, yes, plane crashes) and the four-year-old son of a Fox News-like executive—escape the wreckage together, the painter putting the child on his back and swimming to Montauk.
This novel—part mystery, part character study, and part survivor story—is constructed in a very interesting way. It alternates between the survivors’ stories and the story of each person who died. Each chapter explains a previous one, providing a compelling reason to not put the book down. From the reviews I’ve read, many readers finished the book in one or two sittings, as I did.
There was a slight twist at the end that may disappoint some readers, but all in all I felt this book was successful in portraying our fascination with luxury travel, 24-hour news, dirty financial dealings, and the ultimate redemption of a flawed protagonist.