Customer Reviews

Airplane Novel

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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.

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.

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.

I have never wanted to read a book about 9/11, due, I suppose, to my loss of faith in the press and my wariness of conspiracy theories. But a novel of literary fiction, and experimental, as well, and the words "Rules will be broken" on the back cover, well that was intriguing.

Airplane Novel weighs in at 208 pages and I read it several weeks ago, and it lingers. I took it aboard my holiday flight, but only got around to reading it when in a log cabin with no tv or internet.

The narrator is the South Tower of the World Trade Centre. It is a he, because the voice is that of Cary Grant. But it is the building who tells the story as it watches us spider monkeys below it, for that is how we must seem. The story we all know, or think we do, but this "panoramic" view shows not only events but reflects a human, albeit spider monkey, condition.

Rules are broken, not just in the lives of the characters Cary Grant observes, but also in the way of the writing. The narrator as a building slyly exposes the rules to which writers are encouraged to adhere and then thumbs its nose and wantonly breaks them. Is it a memoir? Is it a history? Is it a novel? Is the narrator reliable? The answers matter little. Airplane novel is an engrossing read, imaginative, experimental, and what lingers for me is that a building can tap into an essence of humanity more so than many humans. A weird and wonderful book.

This book is very different from what I have ever read. Even so, I enjoyed every minute of it. It's not a very light book - word play is insane - and should be taken in at an even pace (if preferred). The idea of having a building as a narrator allows for a lot to happen while being somewhat detached from the story itself. I was surprised by this book because it actually fills from the beginning of the towers to the end and beyond an gives some interesting facts along the way. It helps you know NYC more, too, if you have never been. This book is well worth the read and recognition it receives.

No doubt in my mind after finishing it. I've been familiar with Toth's work for years, but never has anything he's written really risen to the pyrotechnics and, ultimately, humanity on display in this piece. Couldn't recommend it more highly.