Customer Reviews

110 Stories: New York Writes after September 11

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In the flood of publications about 9/11, there is not much that will not be covered by television specials. And of those topics, many will be too painful to revisit again after 9/11 -- for the survivors and families of victims, of course, the pain will not go away even if we try to move on. 110 Stories: New York Writes After September stands out from the many books for several reasons. It offers the voices of extremely sensitive, articulate and exciting New York-based authors to give expression to the terrible events of that day, to render the experience more humanly accessible, and to allow us to approach that day in ways that will not numb our senses. In fact, literature here serves as a way to make the process of mourning and remembrance possible. I applaud the writers in this collection for taking the risks necessary to produce powerful writing. The poem by Edwidge Danticat made me cry, and the short story by Carolyn Ferrell about one of the many victims in the tower allowed me a glimpse into a lost life without ever turning maudlin or exploitative. Others might like to hear how Darren Aronofsky (one of our best film directors: check out Requiem for a Dream!) remembers the World Trade Center, or how playwright Richard Foreman tackles an event that defies the imagination. If you care about New York and if you want to read how literature can testify to the horrors of 9/11 without sensationalizing them, 110 Stories is an amazing choice.

...I purchased this book impulsively, in part because the idea of New York writers addressing 9-11 (110 stories for the 110 floors in the WTC) struck me as a fine idea, and because several of the contributors -- Paul Auster, Tony Hiss, Jonathan Ames, and others -- are people whose work I admire. Sadly, few pieces here are worth the time or money. I was most taken by a contribution by Roberta Allen, from which one can derive the mayhem, the confusion, the disbelief, the fear, that New Yorkers experienced on that day. ...Many of the pieces are not expressly about 9-11, but instead mention in passing the World Trade Center, a character in a piece that takes place in New York. I was, perhaps, most disappointed by the Jonathan Ames contribution. Ames has made a reputation for chronicling his sexual escapades and is frequently quite funny. His piece has no business in this collection. It entails his being a writer-in-residence at an all girls college outside New York, and deals with his lecherous desire to steel glimpses of young girls...as they play tennis. What this has to do with 9-11, I've NO idea. Many of the pieces seem rushed, as if they were taken from a first draft. Tony Hiss's piece interestingly recounts the history of the so-called Lower Westside, and the coming of age of the Trade Center. He concludes the essay with a comment on the buildings and that day. "Then they fell," he writes, "and the city had lost too many, too much, too quickly." That would have been a fine conclusion. But then he adds, "The smile of the skyline had missing teeth." Huh? For me, at least, that last line, which should have been vetted, ruined the entire piece. Since 9-11, I've read so much, so many people trying to put it into perspective, adding their 'insight.' But they have none to share. Words are too feeble to express what I am, and likely most people are, thinking. If you're looking for comfort, understanding, if you're looking for insight, perspective,or anything close to it, this book is likely the LAST thing you should read. It's a cut-and-paste job put out by people who have no great understanding of what happened that day or, for that matter, no true understanding of how they themselves feel or how what they experienced will ultimately change them.

As a reader from Berlin, Germany, I find "110 stories" an interesting approach to understanding what the events of 9/11 meant to the people of New York. Having read many articles by correspondents, journalists, political analysts, who have mostly flown into the city to cover the story, hearing the voices of people who talk about their own lives in their home city offers an insight I did not have before.

I am surprised that one reader from New York finds it disturbing to find so many different views in the collection; some of the criticism expressed in his review point to things which make the book special and valuable to me:
For instance, pieces which were written before Sept 11, and are included in "110 stories", are a very important part of remembering. How can we remember what we have lost if we forget what it was like before? Who would not remember his or her visits to the "Windows of the World", or the photograph of the towers one took on a first visit to New York, when trying to understand what happened on 9/11?
And, writers, or poets, do not have to limit their work to what might be suitable for a newspaper report. What they write in order to express what they see, hear, and feel, thinking about the tragedy of the twin towers, has to be different from what I expect to hear on "60 minutes" or read in "Newsweek".
The good thing about "110 stories" is that it features such a wide range of views, of literary techniques, of backgrounds and opinions. Nobody will agree with, or love, every single of the pieces included in the collection, as nobody will grasp the whole meaning of what happened one year ago in New York.
New York, to a reader from Europe, is an international, a multi-faceted city, with millions of different people and ideas and views. I expect from a book entitled "New York writes after Sept 11" precisely the diversity of form and perspective that the book delivers.

i was moved by this book. the works it contains range from poignant (i particularly loved carol gilligan's piece) to experimental to trashy (ok, i hated ames' piece), a perfect swipe of New York City talent/sensibility caught at a life changing moment. as a painter, i have a commitment to truth by indirection and that is the glory of mr. baer's concept. i treasure both the gravity and the diversity of these writers'reflections on loss and life, on their light hearted tangents and fantastic inventions; words, in de lillo's phrase, to fill the howling void. i have never much liked the short story form but this collection accumulates emotionally with surprising depth and insight. we won't know the real meaning of 110 Stories until time has passed and perspective is gained but at the moment, i applaud it as a paean to the art of writing and to the city of new york.

110 Stories

Reading this collection of stories by NYC writers, some a direct response to the tragedy of 9/11, most an engagement with the deep and recurring issues of loss, of family, of love that are raised by events of this magnitude, is a powerful , sometimes heartbreaking, sometime exhilarating experience. The range of responses is wide; the profound, the graceful are juxtaposed with the outrageous. Some of the most moving pieces achieve their poignancy by indirection. Rinde Ekhart's contribution's, a poem in which the narrator says " I was never the man I used to be" and elsewherere, speaking of a drowning man, " We are all in over our heads" stands out. Particularly insightful is the Introductory essay by Ulrich Baer, the Editor, who speaks movingly and convincingly of "the need for narrative in the wake of a disaster". This collection of voices, characteristically New York in its diversity, constitutes a community of narrative in response to tragedy...."we're still here...we're still writing about what matters ". Assembled in this beautiful book, their voices matter to us , too.

110 Stories,edited by Ulrich Baer, is a remarkable manyvoiced volume. The deeply personal responses to a collective disaster reach beyond the local horror toward the larger themes of loss, grief, and trauma in salvaging the fateful moments in the lives of creative individuals. Eschewing cliches and posturizing - "we dare to talk, but we should be careful with our words" - this collection attests to New York's boundless diversity and vitality.

This book blew me away. It's powerful,moving,sad,poignant,and reaches far beyond what I thought I had read and seen about the terrible events in New York on September 11.The stories in the book are primarily fiction,essays, and poetry,and they all circle around the inexpressible grief and loss that motivated them, without giving in to trite formulations, sentimentality,or easy politics. Instead, these stories all show what remains such an urgent task for us: to find the right words to express our losses without allowing our language to be turned into another kind of weapon.
Read Jennifer Belle's "Gelato is Gelato" and laugh, and weep, or Peter Carey's moving description of the memorial at Union Square.John Kelly's litany of questions leaves no position unquestioned, and Carolyn Ferrell's moving story about the last minutes of one of the victims will make you cry, and yet regain faith in the power of storytelling. If you want to read one book that shows a possible way beyond the shock and grief, this is it.
And a beautiful, subtle and profoundly intelligent cover design by Art Spiegelman. I recommend it most highly!

The attack on the World Trade Center was a global event; its long-time effects will be felt across the world. Yet the reaction in New York City has remained deeply personal, and the losses there concern the details of the everyday for the millions of individuals that make New York into such a vibrant, exciting place. Other books have chronicled the rescue efforts, or recreate the ominous day last September via professional and amateur photographs and reporters' notes. With 110 Stories, editor Baer has tapped into New York as that most unusual of places: a city filled with uniquely talented writers: playwrights, authors, poets, screenwriters, wordsmiths, novelists. The power of storytelling is here marshaled to confront and work through overwhelming trauma, and the city's writers (including some big names like Paul Auster, Peter Carey, John Guare, Richard Howard, Darren Aronofsky) have pulled together to create a book-length memorial. I personally loved April Reynolds's mesmerizing, swaying piece on another American disaster (the Mississippi flood in the 1910s), and Lydia Davis's moving and subtle piece on how to refer to her dad when he was (or is?) dying. These writers use fiction to probe issues such as life and death, and to find out whether we should think about these issues now, in this new age, in a different way. At the same time, the book is life-affirming without ever becoming bullying or heavy-handed. It celebrates the immense diversity of America- ranging from a former Mujahedeen reflecting on his losses post-9/11 to a retired US Marine now writing adventure novels, who before 9/11 had a novel all mapped out with the World Trade Center blown up by a nuclear bomb. By including pieces worth reading even apart from the terrible event to which they sometimes obliquely refer, the book as a whole testifies to what has come under attack over the last year. If you like great and intelligent writing, and if you can deal with what's unexpected and provocative, you should pick up this book. If you want to know what literature can do in the face of unspeakable grief, this book is also for you.

I have been to New York many times, before and after the attacks. I talked to strangers and friends, asked them about their feelings, opinions. When I came home I could not find the words to express my feelings or repeat/describe what I heard and saw; people asked me "what is it like?", "what do they think?"? I could not respond. Now I tell them to read this book. There is a way to describe, to make us understand, at least as far as possible...language, words, stories can help us. I cried, I laughed, I wondered...It helped me very much.
I want to thank Mr.Baer and the various people who made this book. Thank you very much, it is the best book I read for a long time!!

I was very disappointed in this book. I agree that the authors are very off topic. To be fair, I only read about 6 of the entries as I was so disgusted and bored at that point, it was meaningless to wade thru any more.

Some of the stories were simply off-topic or at the very most only mentioned in passing, the subject.

Some of the writings were crude to the point that I wondered how the family members of those who had died would feel. This was the offering of a writer from the city where this aweful event occured? Unbelieveable. Where does your mind have to be to even think out loud this way?

If you are interested in rambling stories that have no point and no message, this is the book for you.

Otherwise, there have been many others written that would encourage and educate you more.