9/11 as a catalyst for the plot

I've just finished Julia Glass's book, The Whole World Over.  I enjoyed it very much; probably more than I enjoyed her first book, Three Junes, which was massively critically acclaimed, and which I didn't much see the point of.  It felt like kind of pointless literary fiction, and I don't much like that sort of book.  But this book, the new one, felt different.  It was more compulsively readable and I felt as if it moved faster.  And the characters were food people, which probably made it more likeable for me. 

However.  However.  At the end of the book, 9/11 happens.  And to be quite honest, this is the first book I've read since then that mentioned the attacks (okay, the first work of fiction), and I wasn't sure how that would play for me.  And I'm still not sure, after reading the book.  (If you plan on reading it, please quit reading now, as I might start giving away major plot points and spoil the book for you.  If not, read on.  And if you're on the fence, I have to tell you that I would absolutely recommend reading it, despite what I'm about to say.  Please don't read this and then decide that you want to read it, because after reading this, it might be pointless.)  Anyway, 9/11 sort of made a choppy appearance in the end, choppy because I got confused as to timelines the way the narrative moved.  First 9/11 happened, then it hadn't, and then it had again.  And though it's clearly a non-fiction event, in the book it was simply a catalyst for each of the main characters to experience the change of heart or mind they needed to keep living.  Or it was the thing that happened that made them come to the big realization that would change their life.

And maybe, just maybe 9/11 was that for so many people (and in a book set half in New York, I suspect that it rings true), but I also felt like 9/11 SOLVED the problems of the people in this book.  I'm not 100% sure how this is bad, but I felt slightly uneasy at the end of the book, like 9/11 was being cheapened, or brought down.  Except that I'm all for literature presenting ordinary human beings reactions to said event, so I can't fathom why the end bothered me so much.  Regardless, I was bothered, even though I enjoyed the book very much.  I suppose it'll be interesting to read more literature dealing with 9/11, though I certainly won't be searching out those books.

Comments

[Susan]

I loved Three Junes. It didn't need a point for me to appreciate the language and the connections between the characters throughout time. I'm looking forward to this new one, too! S.N.