Noah Hawley’s ‘Before the Fall’ (original) (raw)
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Fiction
Noah HawleyCredit...Leah Muse
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- May 30, 2016
BEFORE THE FALL
By Noah Hawley
391 pp. Grand Central Publishing. $26.
Let me say right off the bat, I am a huge fan of the FX television show “Fargo.” It seems a reasonable confession to make before I review a novel written by the show’s producer/writer/showrunner.
Noah Hawley is definitely riding a wave of success right now. The critical and commercial success of “Fargo” has brought him a fistful of industry awards. His show is a real water-cooler conversation starter.
But books are different. Hype and advertising and celebrity can certainly get a reader to pick up a novel and read the first few pages. After that, it’s all about the words and the characters, the heart and soul of the story. I had no doubt that Hawley could write, that he could create amazing characters, that he had an ear for dialogue and a unique point of view — but could he write a successful novel?
The answer, as readers of his four earlier books probably know already, is a resounding yes.
Hawley’s fifth novel, “Before the Fall,” begins on a foggy summer night, with a luxurious private jet awaiting passengers. Not unlike the disaster movies of the 1970s, the story is at first concerned with letting us know who the cast will be. First we are introduced to the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendant, but these introductions are short and to the point. They are not the characters who matter, these sentences imply. Of importance are the passengers.
The first to board is the Bateman family. David Bateman, a high-profile, multimillionaire media mogul, has chartered the jet and arrives with his wife, Maggie, a down-to-earth former preschool teacher, and their children, 9-year-old Rachel and 4-year-old JJ. They are traveling with a security guard named Gil, a man who watches their every move and is armed for their protection.
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