Before the Fall – Noah Hawley

What a terrific book club meeting we had last week. We read Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley – a book full of suspense and intrigue, although some of you had guessed how the ending might turn out long before you finished the book. I didn’t guess how the story would turn out and was surprised at the ending. I was lo
oking for something much more elaborate, given some of the cagey characters in the book, and so the simplicity of it in the end was something of a surprise to me. I guess that makes for a good story!

Very early in the book, there’s a plane crash, an unlikely hero and a little boy saved. The story becomes a whodunnit of sorts, with the following chapters devoted to each character, with very little background and more of a focus on the events and days leading up to the crash. It’s an interesting way to tell a story without giving too much away, leaving the reader to constantly second-guess whether this person or that person or… well, I think you get the gist of it. The possibilities are endless and with your own imagination, almost anything could happen.

There was a lot of focus on the 24-hour news cycle that we all experience everyday in our own homes, so it was impossible not to correlate some of the current events to the book. As you’re aware, one of the characters is a “newsman”, although in this case, I’m using the term rather lightly. This newsman’s focus was never on the truth but rather the sensationalism of the story, be it true or not. The goal was to feed and entertain an audience rather than report the news. Sound familiar?

The unlikely hero of the story is a painter that just happened to accept a fateful ride and had the right skills at the right time that enabled him to save a four year old boy. When the painter was a young boy, his hero was Jack LaLanne, who became an unknowing mentor. Yes, the same Jack LaLanne you’re thinking of. I know – I was surprised too!! At any rate, the painter experiences his own journey from the hero who doesn’t see himself as a hero and wants to fade into the background to becoming someone ready to take on the world – finally. It’s a compelling storyline.

The rest of the characters border on sleazy to innocent and maybe a few somewhere in-between. I won’t spend time going through all of the characters since many of you have already read the book and know them well. For those that haven’t, I don’t want to spoil the story. That said, here’s a link to a really good book review if you want to read more about it. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/books/review-noah-hawleys-before-the-fall-is-one-of-the-years-best-suspense-novels.html

Thanks again for coming and if you haven’t already, don’t forget to submit your choices for new book kit purchases by the library for next year. This really is your opportunity to have a say in what the library purchases for the book clubs. Next month, we’ll be discussing The Forgetting Time, by Sharon Guskin. All of the copies for the book club were checked out but you can probably still find some online to check out. Amazon also has it for a great price.

See you next month!

Thanks,
Donna