Customer Reviews

September 11: An Oral History

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is better, if only for hitting precisely the right tone for me as a reader, than the couple of other "oral history" volumes I have read on this subject. It is the opposite of commercial writing or wham-bam journalism: it has the serious purpose and tone of sensitive, well-written fiction. The stories in this particular book have become the "real" September 11, 2001 to me as a distant observer, that is, the virtual physical space my imagination inhabits when I think of those buildings and the people and the day.

The vision of the participants is in ways more indelible, if that is possible, than the images of collapse that we have seen on TV scores or hundreds of times. Past a point, those images numb you; you cannot comprehend the how and why of such a thing happening, and it may take you a while to even come to that conclusion, after spending months trying to make sense of the puzzle and the horror. And eventually, to take some of the heartache away, you may do what a generation did with the Kennedy assasinations, turning them from high tragedy to an intellectual detective story. You think about the physics of the collapse, the engineering of the towers, the whereabouts of the criminal masterminds. You can only dwell on horror for so long. This book returns you to the human dimension that the footage of the falling buildings may, ironically, have dulled for you.

There are moments here that will be with you the rest of your days. The still-interiorized words of those who lived through the worst of it, which we are priveleged to share here, can be harrowing and nearly overwhelmingly sad. But while it is often sad, this is not a sentimental memoir. Be warned, there is some very disturbing, specific content here. Murphy's September11: An Oral History is a profound book that belongs in anyone's library.

This book tells the personal stories of a variety of people in New York, young and old, at the time the planes hit the World Trade Center. Each story is three to four pages long, which makes for easy reading. Each is well written and filled with emotion. I was truly on the edge of my seat reading some of these stories, even though I knew the end of their story (obviously they survived to tell about it). Why isn't this a best-seller?

I found that this book provided a sense of what really happened than what I saw on T.V. While the news gave you all the facts and data, this author wrote interviews he took from people who were actually in the WTC, Pentagon, and those in surronding buildings. After reading this I finally had a sense of how people reacted during the horrific events.

I decided that this would be the one book on September 11th I would purchase. I thought that oral history was a form particularly suited to the varied individual experiences of that day, and I anticipated a broad range of stories and insights. While the recollections included here are everything they should be -- moving, intelligent, extraordinary -- the book as a whole was very frustrating because of what it did not include. We are not told the ages of the speakers, and -- bafflingly -- we are not given photographs of them, which would have added a great deal and not overly inconvenienced the author or publisher. However, the most troubling shortcoming of the book is that it should be much, much longer. It should be an exhaustive account of that day, including a far greater number and range of experiences. The author seems to justify the small selection of voices by limiting himself to survivors -- to people who were actually on site at the buildings (though there are one or two exceptions to this rule) -- but a book that calls itself an oral history of the event should have incorporated the experiences of people in the airports, families of the lost, members of the press, and countless others whose experiences would have had meaning for the rest of us. It seems clear to me that in the rush to get this book out by the first anniversary, the author and publisher made do with a manuscript that was simply not substantial enough to justify its title. I still hope someone will compile a definitive oral history of September 11th, and I regret that this wasn't it.

The book is presented as a series of short recollections by people of all walks of life; from an immigrant on his first day on the job, to executives making decisions that would save their lives.

There are many stories relating unfathomable horrors wiped away by the collapse of the towers. However, most stories are about the strength of the will to survive, the bond we share that allow us to care for perfect strangers, and amazing luck.

Unfiltered, raw, and a fosters an appreciation for life.

this book, written by new york times reporter, murphy, is an int-
grieging and sometimes horrible look back at the world that fell
(most specically) into the collective laps of those living in manhattan, and to a lesser point, those people whose lives sur-
rounded the day to day routine of the U.S. Pentagon. At times
the portraits are of unparalled heroism, as well as fate, and
how, quite often, those fates intervened. Yes, we have seen the
wall to wall television coverage ad nauseum, but this well con-
structed history offers no art, no photos, no flight 93 heroes;
but rather that of ordinary Americans facing the least ordinary
day in recent history. You'll come away saddened, but most
likely, inspired.

Due to graphic relevations of death and rescue efforts, I would
caution 18 and under to handle this book with care.

I brought this book after hearing it was one of the better books written about 9/11, however, i found most of the stories i had heard already in earlier books. And the authors writing style is a little confusing to follow, he skips around a lot and it makes you lose track of where he left the story off.

The book is pretty good in a lot of parts. When you read this book it makes you sad at times because of the terrible things that happen. Like many people dying, the World Trade Centers falling, families losing loved ones, etc. It is interesting to read about what wrote from their point of view. It is a good book for those who like to learn about history. To see what happened on that day. The book tells about different people find a safe way to exit the buildings or to jump out of the window if they had no choice. But those people died. READ IT, it is a good book to read about one of our nations major crisis in U.S. history.

The content was generally good, but my complaint is how the publisher set up the book. The introductory paragraph for each section was set in a font so faint that it strained my eyes to read it. The paragraph should have been set in bolf-face or at least italics and not in nearly invisible letters.