Customer Reviews

New York September Eleven Two Thousand One

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After receiving a few mean-spirited e-mails about my review of this book, I feel I must clarify a few issues.

Again, I've gone through nearly 30 books about 9/11. After you get past the austere black cover, this paperback falls with a thud.

Simply put, this book tries too HARD to be profound. You see images you've seen before, such as the sequence of shots of one of the jets slamming into the south tower of the WTC. Nothing new.

Two things bug me: Layout and content.

In the layout, you get the feeling the editors are trying to SLEGEHAMMER the reader with the obvious. I hate this. For example, in some essays, certain words and phrases are laid out into single lines, as if they are poetry. Then there is the awful decision to use fonts of varying sizes to EMPHASIZE certain passages. This is a pretentious device that, I'm sorry, calls TOO MUCH ATTENTION to itself. It is completely unnecessary and smacks of a patronizing tone intended to magnify the depth and gravity of what occurred on 9/11. We all know about that dark day. We DON'T need it pushed into our faces under the umbrella of "literary art."

Meanwhile, about the Chomsky essay: It's short but it's awful. It's laid out, again, in a way that feels like "padding." His message reads like an "I told you so" lesson. Here's what he does: He points to America's "sins" of the past and then turns them around in a way that makes you want to believe that it's NOW THE UNITED STATES' TURN TO SUFFER. This is horrible. His opinions are the stuff of fiery pamphlets handed out on street corners. (BECAUSE WHO WOULD PAY FOR THIS?)

OK, what's good about this book? Well, some of the transcripts of phone calls and a handful essays from victims and witnesses are well done. Why? Because they ARE NOT pretentious. But when others try to be "inspirational," they end up stating the obvious. I can't help but feel most writers were given an outlet to "vent" their own emotions, which have more relevance to the writer than to the reader.

If you want more for less, pick up the December 2001 issue of American Heritage Magazine. There you get five-star opinions about 9/11 from individuals of world repute. It has a "permanence" this book lacks and it doesn't feel rushed together.

In sum, it's fine to read what people like Joan Rivers, Deepak Chopra, Richard Dreyfuss and others "feel" about 9/11. But is it worth PAYING for? You can't judge quality by "good intentions." This is a rush-to-market volume featuring opinions from most who have (or who will have) little if any impact on our lives. Why not opinions from Giuliani, Bush, Blair, Sharon and Arafat, even those recorded by the news media in the AFTERMATH of 9/11? Why not more views from individuals who can effect CHANGE? This book could have been GREAT.

Trust me, this is NOT the definitive book of "think pieces" about 9/11/01.

If you disagree, fine. It's your money. But my advice is to borrow before you buy. There are other books worth buying. This one isn't.

There have been lots of books published about 9/11 recently. I've browsed through most at booksores, and I find this one to be the most powerful. I like the other books, but they're mostly just photos. This one, New York September Eleven Two Thousand One, mixes really amazing photographs with essays, poems, and observations that will break your heart AND take you into the head's of the folks working at ground zero. It's a really wonderful tribute to the victims, their families, the rescue workers, and our country.

From what I've been able to gather from the front part of the book, the contributors, both photographers and writers, have donated their images and words so that all of the publisher's profits can go to charity. The contributors are, for the most part, amazing writers, thinkers and photographers, like Chomsky, Chopra, Rushdie and on and on. What I liked most, however, were the quieter photos--the one's showing what was happening at ground zero in the days and weeks after the attack--and the written pieces from the non-professional writers, people that just poured their hearts out. Some are famous because of being involved in the attack, others were famous before, but aren't known for spilling their guts so honestly and openly. The ones I thought really did a nice job were Joan Rivers, Richard Dreyfuss and Liam Neeson. Neeson, particularly, is good. He admits that, hey, I'm no writer, but here's what's in my heart and here's what I wish. Good stuff. There's something like 40 such contributors. Also, there's a good piece from the late Carl Sagan reprinted, called Reflections On A Mote of Dust. It really brings the book to a somber but appropriate close.

This one is well worth buying. Especially since the proceeds go to charity. I think the spirit of the book is such that it would make a nice gift as well. One thing this book doesn't do which it feels like some of the others do (sorry, but it's true) is sensationalize the attack. There are no exploding buildings on the cover of this book. It's just very a respectful, plain, flat black. It feels like something you could put out on the coffee table without feeling like some sort of ghoul. Like books on the Kennedy assassination, I think this should be in every household.

I recently reviewed many September 11 book that have hit the market and selected this book for my father who is a retired fireman. The book contains many well know writers, excellent photography and is well designed. The added bonus is the proceded are going to a charity that has not been widely acknowleged, the working poor. I recommend this book highly to anyone who is searching to remember the tragedy our country has recently endured.

The combination of text, transcripts of 911 calls, the names of the deceased, and the powerful visual images makes this the most moving testament to 9/11 that I have spent time with. The text is especially strong and reflective. The transcript of the 911 calls is more powerful than any visual image I saw during the morning and afternoon of September eleventh.
Thank you for publishing such a lovely and even-tempered book. It is a book to which I often return.

As someone who lived through September 11 as a resident of Downtown Manhatten, I have been very particular about the books and texts that I have read about the situation. For me, this book was a touching and painful exploration of what it was like to live through such horror and fear. This book explores the events through photos, poetry, journal's of New Yorkers, and time. 8:46am, 9:06am. A record of emergancy calls from the towers. A description of the birds on fire. This book has enabled me to start to look back at the situation, to start to open up millimeter by millimeter to deal with the pain. I highly recomend it for anyone who lived through that day, or who really want to see what it was like. This book is horribly beutiful and real.

I was very disappointed to see that two months after September 11, this book, dedicated to raising funds for the victims' families, included an essay by the anti-American propagandist Noam Chomsky. I couldn't understand why Paul Tudor Jones' Robin Hood Foundation allowed it.

Chomsky has always been against the U.S., despite benefiting from U.S. citizenship and a tenured linguistics professorship at MIT. But his essay in this book took his animosity to a new level.

Chomsky has accused the U.S. of purposefully starving the Afghan people, of committing a "silent genocide." In fact, the U.S. and NATO, while fighting a war against terror, have also used their full military resources to deliver food and medical relief for millions of hungry, cold, sick, war-weary Afghans.

In contrast to the grotesque U.S. government behavior Chomsky expected after 9/11, there were no massive roundups of Muslims, no firing squads, and no intentional U.S. attacks against South Asian civilians.

While millions of people around the world celebrated the deaths of thousands of U.S. civilians on Sept. 11, Chomsky here derided the U.S.

A few months earlier, in another book, Chomsky had actually called for such an attack on the U.S.

Nothing can excuse the Islamic attackers, however, or their supporting web of Islamic terrorists, against whom we legitimately went to war.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

This book is not easy to find. I finally ordered it from Amazon.com and I was amazed by it. I read all the critiques to this book. I usually like or do not like a book. I love this book, it is very factual, accurate and explores the feeling of about 30 people that had somenting to say about 9-11. It does not matter to me who they are and what they do, what matters is that the essays touch on fears that I had and still have. I do not pretend this book to change the world but to give me feeling and images to hang on to. On each essay I can find someting I can relate to and this makes the book special, it makes it personal. Highly recommended.

I am more than slightly curious as to why one reviewer feels that Norm Chomsky's article in this book is "anti-American". Since when is it considered anti-American to ask seeking questions? Nowhere in his short article does Chomsky place blame on anything American. As Americans we must carefully look at what led up to the terrorist attacks. It behooves us to seek as much insight into the terrorist mind as possible, if we are to ever successfully eradicate this scourge from the planet we must know and understand our enemy. I believe that this is the purpose of the Norm Chomsky entry.

On 9-11-01 I lost two very close friends at the World Trade Center. After spending the next two weeks mourning and asking myself what I could do, I went to New York as part of a mental health counseling team. Someday, perhaps, I will write of the things I saw and heard; until then, this book, to me, best captures the feelings, emotions and events of that harrowing day. No book, no matter how well written, can completely capture the emotions of that day; however, this book comes close and, I believe that it presents the events during and after 9-11 honestly and sensitively.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is seeking insight with out sensationalism.

The accounts of the actual people in the WTC to me are
what made the book. Their descriptions of the carnage they
witnessed as they were rushing out of the buildings, puts
you right there. The pictures recap the events of the day
with dignity. I'm glad I grabbed a copy of this.

At first i had difficulty coming to grips with the events of September 11, 2001. Why would I want to own a memento of such a horrific event. It had shattered the city of my youth. Yet, I knew that it was best to come face to face with it. Giorgio Baravalle's dedication to his children set me at ease. It paved the way for a renewed innocence and allowed me to deal with the sorrow. Seeing the thoughts and photographs of all the contributors gently seared the gaping wound of my soul. It was a poignant experience. Very powerful.
we are to be thankful to all those who were positioned by divine destiny to document this moment in time. I appreciate this book for doing just that. It is definitely worth having as an historical literary document.