Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith [Hardcover]

Jeff Goodell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2002

The nation stopped and held its collective breath as word spread of the plight of the nine Pennsylvania coal miners who where trapped underground for 77 hours. Nine miners were below when water trapped in an adjacent mine burst through the wall of the new mine they were working. As the air grew thinner and the men grew colder, they listened to the water rising around them in the honeycomb of coal veins. Sitting in a small air pocket, the men wrote farewell notes to their families and sealed them in a lunch bucket.

On the surface, the rescue effort became hampered when a special drill bit snapped. The drill would lay idle for 14 hours, effectively halting the rescue, as a replacement was brought in. Hope and despondency alternated, as the determined rescue team made progress, then hit setbacks. Below ground, standing in water and chilling temperatures, the men rode the same waves of hope and despair, all in complete darkness.

The successful rescue of the Nine for Nine miners lifted the spirits of an entire nation. Now everyone can hear the complete story of this harrowing accident -- how these men and their families had the strength and bravery it took to survive the incredible ordeal, and of the frantic efforts to save them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The story of the nine Pennsylvania coal miners who were trapped underground for more than three days last July could have easily been sidetracked by aphorisms about America's post-September 11 can-do spirit and the like. But since this tale is mainly told via the miners' own words, it's a blessedly unsentimental and true-to-life account of a horrifying situation and a triumphant escape. Goodell (The Cyberthief and the Samurai: The True Story of Kevin Mitnick-And the Man Who Hunted Him Down) proves a knowing scribe for this story of adventure and endurance, alternating between filling in the setting when necessary and just letting the miners talk, oral history style. For example, one miner, John Unger, recalls, "To keep our spirits up, we talked about what we were going to do when we got out.... Nobody had anything extravagant in mind. Harpo was going to have a cigarette and a beer and a chew." Goodell then adds, "At about 2:30 p.m., Yost's drill finally reached a depth of about 230 feet, roughly 15 feet above the floor of the mine." It's a pulse-racing tale, in which a drill punches into an old, abandoned, water-filled mine, quickly flooding the space where the miners are working, trapping them in a dark, cold pocket of rapidly diminishing air. Goodell wisely keeps the focus on these hard-bitten men and the bravery that kept them going through those long, indistinguishable days and nights underground. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A moving account of the near-tragedy from start to finish." -- Arizona Republic

"Isn't the only new book about . . . nine men from a flooded Pennsylvania coal mine, but it's the best." -- Atlanta Journal Constitution

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (November 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401300553
• ISBN-13: 978-1401300555
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,641,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JEFF GOODELL is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith. Goodell's memoir, Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family, was a New York Times Notable Book. The New York Times called his most recent book, Big Coal, "a compelling indictment of one of the country's biggest, most powerful and most antiquated industries . . . well-written, timely, and powerful."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wanted more, February 28, 2003

By 

Andrew McCullough (Lafayette, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith (Hardcover)

Pretty easy read and insightful into the ordeal these nine men and their families went through. But... it could have been so much more. Goodell simply justs organizes their comments and adds a little info here and there. I would have prefered to have read an account researched by an author where he took those interviews and created a mesmorizing narrative. What it is now is an okay book that you can read in a day. But what it could have been would have been a gripping story that made you feel like you were in that mine with them or waiting in the fire station with friends and family hoping for the miracle that came. Also, the pictures left a lot to be desired. The diagram of the mine was helpful but most of the pictures were of rescuerers not mentioned in the book or faint photos of the men as they came to the surface. Also I kept having to look back at the jacket to connect who was whom because the author used nicknames but the diagram had real names. Otherwise an okay book so I give it 3 stars. The story of the miracle itself is worth 5 stars.

3.0 out of 5 stars A great story poorly expressed, June 27, 2011

By 

D. Bartol (Okinawa, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating story about 9 miners, in the town of Quecreek, Pennsylvania, who wound up trapped in the depths of a coal mine for 77 hours. The way it was told, however......That's another issue. If this book were picked up by a novel writer or pretty much anyone who can tell a good story, it would have been a great read. Instead it was written like an hour long news report with a narrator filling in the gaps between the member interviews. This approach does give a lot of direct quotes from the miners and their families, but it also leaves in the poor grammar and speech that makes them sound a lot less intelligent than they probably are, and doesn't leave you sympathizing with them by the way they actually experienced the trauma. It was lot of, "we thought we was gonna die", without digging into the progression of that reality. I usually wouldn't say this, but it could have used a little hollywood flavor to get the reader engaged with the story. It would definitely make for a good novel/movie, but it just didn't deliver in this book.

While I never really had an interest in mining (still don't), it does give you a good picture as to how life in a coal mine works, and the desperation in a persons life that might lead someone to that field of work. Overall, I think the story itself could make for a great novel or movie (if done well), but this was read like someone just interviewed the miners and their wives and then compiled the quotes to make a book. I don't usually give books away, but this might end up at Goodwill very soon.

3.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story, but lacking..., December 5, 2007

By 

B. Hamlin (StL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Story (Mass Market Paperback)

First and formost this is a good book. It really brings to life a situation people who are not miners can barely understand. I myself picked the book up on a whim to read a good story and I got just that.
I did however feel the book was lacking somewhere. Maybe it was the lack of detail or maybe it was the way in which it was written, I just felt it could have 'bowled me over' a little more than it did.
If you would like to read an amazing story about an amazing group of people this is a book you should read. Just don't look for anything too amazing on the pages.