ABSTRACT
One of the pervasive images used to describe the havoc of 9/11 became that of falling—the falling of people's bodies, of the towers themselves, of the ashy debris that shrouded the New York streets for weeks. The shock of those trapped human beings choosing to die in the air, in flight as it were, brought home the individualized and individualizing tragedies that lived long after the attack. As the United States came to more assurance about the attacks, the attackers, and the politics of 9/11, the quietness of grieving gave way to questioning and then to depictions that would help to inscribe September 11, 2001, in United States history. Critic Marni Gauthier makes the point that novels about 9/11 do not follow any postmodern patterns. They share some of the postmodern tactics—fragmentation of events, self-consciousness of effect—but they are much more likely to avoid humor or impersonality.
