Airplane Novel [Paperback]

Paul A. Toth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 12, 2011

Airplane Novel tells the story of 9/11 as experienced by its narrator, the South Tower, which violates every publishing commandment, exchanging cheap sentimentality and impossible "closure" for an exploded view of all that occurred, then reconstructing the event and returning it to living history. This is the 9/11 novel, finally proving what many had justifiably come to believe impossible.

Editorial Reviews

Review

USA Today's #4 Best Independent Novel of 2011.

Is Paul A. Toth's new Airplane Novel the 9/11 novel? Perhaps. It certainly makes the short list. We've been seeking perspective, after all, and Toth delivers with a second tower omniscient narrator, the South Tower himself, who details his birth, life, and death from his singular, elevated vantage point. ~ Shelf Unbound

Reviewer's Choice by Midwest Book Review.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press (July 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935738143
• ISBN-13: 978-1935738145
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul A. Toth's next major work, Airplane Novel, will prove to be THE 9/11 novel and departs in July 2011 from Raw Dog Screaming Press. For a spectacular preview of the first chapter, narrated by Cary Grant, please see http://www.airplanenovel.com. Toth's first three published novels form a nonlinear trilogy consisting of Fizz, Fishnet and Finale.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, if you can commit, July 28, 2011

By 

Joseph Bouthiette, Jr. (MA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airplane Novel (Paperback)

Let's get this out of the way: This book is not an easy read. If you're looking for casual literature or funky bizarro writing, this is not it. If you're looking for deeply written work that poses more questions than answers, look no further.

Airplane Novel, as should be obvious by the description, is a story as told by the South Tower of the World Trade Center, aka Cary Grant. The casual passerby may think this is the events of 9/11 told by this building, and they may be a bit disappointed. The actual event is never really touched. More than half the book is an exposition, Cary Grant introducing her fictional, or non-fictional, characters and their ties to the tower. The rest of the book is a series of scenarios maybe related, maybe not, to the attacks.

Everything ties together in a surreal logic, like the story is told to the semi-steady beats of the South tower's pulse. The chapters are short, so it's easy to hack away at quite a few in one sitting. But don't expect this to be a one-day read.

All that being said, I strongly recommend you pick this book up and commit to it. You may not gain a better understanding of the event (like I expected), but it'll definitely make you think. And this book, not a book, was made for just that. Mission accomplished.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Airplane Novel, July 25, 2011

By 

Dr. G. Kim Franz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airplane Novel (Paperback)

Dear Bobby, (as in Bob Dylan) you will love Paul Toth Airplane Novel: The Only 9/11 Novel Worth Reading! Page 155 was a Allen Ginsberg moment for me. Only Paul could send a killed Jew to Utah. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the couch. This is a quickly timed book but not fast reading. It is filled with impressive research, universal thoughtful philosophy, a range of "life" observations and even more questions. Paul Toth's Airplane Novel is both brilliant and honest. DO NOT EXPECT casual reading. This is hardcore, word by word.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story... our narrator is both victor and victim, July 13, 2011

By 

Emory B. Pueschel "fuzzy theologian" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airplane Novel (Paperback)

Winston Churchill said "History is written by the victors." This is true enough, but such an account is only half of the story. What of the victims? Is their story not integral to the narrative of history? What of their motivations? Their desires? Their drives? What of the narrator? Is their perception of events any less valid because they stand outside? Paul A. Toth answers these charges with "Airplane Novel".

Are the answers simple? No. The narrator makes no effort to disguise possible contradictions. It is a novel and it may not be a novel. The characters may be real and they may be fictions. Many of the events described happened or they did not. Tying this collection of contradictory assertions together is what may be the most marvelous use of personification in writing. Our narrator is not a person. It is a building, more specifically the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and it refers to itself as Cary Grant.

Perhaps the most incredible part of this tale is not the gentle twisting of literary conventions. Rather it is how Mr. Toth has taken a real story that people around the world are familiar with and given both a unique fictional account and an unbiased one. From cover to cover we are presented with observations, as our narrator is the quintessential observer, and the events described take a back seat to the individual players presented.

Each chapter fleshes out an individual player, tying them all together through the ultimate event that was September 11, 2001. This is not an unusual method for a novel, for what is a story but the development of the characters? No, what is fascinating is Toth's ability to convey observations on human nature through the lens of an alien sentience. To Cary Grant, we are not people, we are spider monkeys. To it, we are just as contradictory as its description of events.

"Airplane Novel" is less fictionalized history and more an examination of what it is to be human, for whatever that may be worth. It is complex through simplicity. Varied through repetition. In a nod to Cary Grant, "swaying in a breeze, starched and clean and beyond blame": It is a novel that may or may not be a novel. It is not a good story. It is an amazing story, and through it our narrator is both victor and victim.