From One Desert to the Other: Reconstructing Identity after the Catastrophe

Abstract

Because it can indicate both an end and a beginning, the desert brings to mind catastrophe. Indeed, one of the main features of catastrophe is that it signals both a conclusion and the birth of something new. In this article I focus on two books dealing with the catastrophe of 9/11, but also with more personal catastrophes, and see how two male characters try to reconstruct their identities going from one desert to another. The characters of Falling Man (DeLillo, 2007) and Sunset Park (Auster, 2010), impacted by life-changing catastrophe (the 9/11 attacks and the death of a brother) try to reinvent themselves, leaving desert-like places. If Keith’s steps take him to the desert of Las Vegas and its poker rooms, Miles’ bring him back to New York, to an abandoned place. Dwelling on the potential of these deserted places to reinvent oneself, these novels also raise the question of the (im)possibility of ontological reconstruction after the catastrophe.