Book 17: Before The Fall

TITLE: Before the Fall
AUTHOR: Noah Hawley
STARTED: July 12, 2017
FINISHED: August 6, 2017
PAGES: 391
GENRE: Fiction

FIRST SENTENCE: A private plane sits on a runway in Martha's Vineyard, foreword stairs deployed.

SUMMARY: [From BN] 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. With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members—including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot—the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. 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. Amid pulse-quickening suspense, the fragile relationship between Scott and the young boy glows at the heart of this stunning novel, raising questions of fate, human nature, and the inextricable ties that bind us together.

THOUGHTS: I put this book on my list because it was getting rave reviews and the story seemed interesting. The story ended up being enjoyable (if somewhat existential) but now that I'm done reading it, the book has flittered away from memory. While reading this book, I was very into the plot and the characters. I want to see what would happen; I want to see how these flawed people would react; I wanted to see how all the plot lines would wrap up. I even spent a solid hour on the couch one afternoon finishing the final 50 pages. But, once I finished the book, it had no staying power. I simply added it to the pile of books that needed to back to the library and went about my merry way.

As intriguing as the story is, I think the book gets a bit dense and philosophical for what is, essentially, a beach read. It's a thriller that has digressions on philosophy and what it means to be a survivor or human going through a dramatic period. It pits individual peoples life choices against one another but, because the book feels like the plot of a thriller, it doesn't all quite work together. I wish the author had picked one style: beach read or look at human nature... not both.

RATING: 7/10 [Very Good]

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