https://killingmykindle.com/2018/05/07/episode-1-18-sad-pathetic-little-bastards/ Wherein I Review: 64. Before the Fall by Noah Hawley 65. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (St. Mary’s Chronicles #6) by Jodi Taylor 66. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher In which I happen up on a multitude of not “Nice Guys” but entitled men and boys throughout some solid books. Guys who feel like they are owed the affections of a girl. Noah Hawley unpacks the baggage of his mystery in fascinating and infuriating ways. Jodi Taylor keeps the hits coming with St. […]
Everyone Has Their Path (or why I need to work on my astronavigation skills!)
I love when I read a mystery or thriller that is so tightly structured and interestingly written that it stays with me for days and sometimes weeks after I finish it. Noah Hawley’s novel, Before The Fall, was that kind of book for me. The novel pulled me in both because of the swimming angle and the idea of chance and paths crossing. A private plane going from Martha’s Vineyard to New York City crashes into the ocean. Twelve people get on the plane (including […]
Before He Was a Showrunner, He Was a Novelist
I love Noah Hawley, the showrunner, who has created two great seasons of Fargo and one decent season; a bizarre but fascinating season of Legion; and an under-appreciated season of The Unusuals. With his television work, however, Hawley has always worked in the confines of another property, whether it’s the framework of Fargo, the characters of Legion, or the constricts of a network police procedural in The Unusuals. I was deeply curious as to who Hawley is in his natural state: What kind of yarn […]
Sometimes it take a literal plane crash to elucidate our lives
Last month over on Oohlo in discussing the season three finale of Noah Hawley’s television program Fargo I had the following comment: “Hawley is also never just telling us a plot, he’s crafting a story. Not everything we see moves the story along, but everything means something, grows out the larger themes.” As I was reading Before the Fall, I had the same feeling about his literary work. On the surface this is a story about a plane crash and the people who perished and […]
“Life is made of these moments – of one’s physical being moving through time and space – and we string them together into a story, and that story becomes our life.”
Here’s something weird. I read this book a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t put it down. I kept talking about how great it was and how much I loved it. And then I kind of forgot about it, and just moved on to the next book. Which, considering that Noah Hawley is mostly known as a TV writer, sort of makes sense: Finish up one episode, and get ready for the next. You may know Noah Hawley as the mastermind behind the amazing Fargo. […]
“Life is a series of decisions and reactions. It is the things you do and the things that are done to you. And then it’s over.”
“Everyone is from someplace. We all have stories, our lives unfolding along crooked lines, colliding in unexpected ways.” Before the Fall opens with a plane crash with only two survivors. Scott Burroughs is a painter who lives on Martha’s Vineyard and paints disaster scenes in homage to his sister who passed away as a teenager. As a young child he watched Jack LaLanne swim to shore from Alcatraz; this moment inspired him to join the swim team. Maggie is married to media mogul David Bateman and they […]