Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises -- And Rises Again [Hardcover]

Kevin Boyle (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...the lessons so compelling in ("It's a Wonderful Life") still thrive in a real place called Rockaway." -- Mike Barnicle, NY Daily News

Kevin Boyle seeks the meaning of the events on and after September 11th in these moving, personal accounts. -- E.J. Dionne, syndicated columnist, author of Why Americans Hate Politics

May the strength and faith of these heroes of Rockaway help us all rise up! -- Tim Russert, NBC's Meet the Press

Rockaway is home to heroes. After reading the book, it's easy to understand why. -- Brian Williams, NBC News

About the Author

From a sea wall in Rockaway, Kevin Boyle watched as the twin Towers burned and then crumbled. He was close enough to the crash of Flight 587 that his eyes dried from the heat of the hellish fire.

Boyle has spent his life in Brooklyn and Rockaway. He was editor of Rockaway’s only newspaper, The Wave, for five years and continues his relationship with the paper as a regular columnist. Boyle has been published in The Washington Post, New York Newsday, and the New York Post. He has a master’s degree in radio and television from Brooklyn College. Before becoming editor of The Wave, he operated a sports bar in Brooklyn called The Brooklyn Dodger.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Rising Star Press (November 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933670079
• ISBN-13: 978-0933670075
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,183,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOME OF THE BRAVE, November 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises -- And Rises Again (Hardcover)

Rockaway Beach is the unofficial capital of firefighting New York. Generations of NYC firefighters have made their homes here in this sliver of a neighborhood by the beach in the shadows of the city's skyline.
Kevin Boyle captures the humor, courage and resilience of this place in what is surely one of the best books to come out of 9/11. In fact, it's inaccurate to call this a "9/11 book" at all because it's more about the powerful personal stories of ordinary people-- not just firemen-- who found themselves doing extraodinary things in the face of two unimaginable catastrophes. In this way, it calls to mind "The Perfect Storm" as it weaves the poignant-- and sometimes hilarious-- details of the lives of people you get to know and like in the shadow of an impending disaster. Here though the coming disaster was double barrelled: September 11 and the crash of Flight 587 in the heart of the neighborhood two months later.
Boyle knows these people and it shows in the remarkably true to life writing. Highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, November 3, 2002

By 

Billy Flanigan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises -- And Rises Again (Hardcover)

I've been out of Rockaway for a long time now, but Boyle put me right back on the boardwalk. And just when he makes us comfortable being back at the beach, he takes us to lower Manhattan on September 11. I've read a lot of eyewitness accounts but this as real as it gets. He follows the day of a bunch of firefighters and some "regular" people and it goes from bad to worse. Because Rockaway lost so many people the place is devastated but not broken. The people are trying to get on with their lives. And just like that a plane crashes in Belle Harbor. Some of the same people who were there on 9-11 rush like mad to the plane crash. Some of them run on foot because they're that close to it. It's just unreal stuff. But Boyle puts it all together.
There are great stories here and some unbelievable people. I give this a big thumbs up. You will too.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC - from a Firefighter, November 21, 2002

By 

George Johnson (Rockaway, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises -- And Rises Again (Hardcover)

I just finished Kevin Boyle's book, Braving the Waves, and in my opinion it's fantastic! I lived through these tragedies and didn't think I wanted to read about them again but once I picked up his book, I couldn't put it down.
Boyle gets inside the heads of the people he writes about. The firemen I know and respect won't open up or talk at all to reporters but they talk to Kevin because he's one of them, one of us. It choked me up half a dozen times.
This book is a must read for everyone, the people from Rockaway who lived through the tragedies and outsiders who want a real insider's view. People who weren't there will feel like they were standing in the concrete dust of the WTC and smelling the burning jet fuel of Flight 587 after reading it.
-George Johnson