Customer Reviews

A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the opening moments of this amazing book, I was taken deep into the extraordinary and life-defining days of the beautiful and sweeping romance of Marian and her husband of 17 years, Dave.

"A Widow's Walk" is, at its core, a story of how a family survives long after the unexpected happens. And that unexpected was September 11, 2001. When the simple, familiar euphoria of everyday life is shattered and the world turns upside down.

With her distinctive sense of irony (and humor), Marian struggles with the insatiable need to collapse from the impact of overwhelming emotions but is forced to remain engaged in motherhood and provide their son, Aidan, with a safe, nurturing and consistent life in the midst of extreme, significant chaos.

It is also about how activity as a response for devestation leads to understanding and hope. Fontana forces herself in motion by sheer will and courage and the rewards (although never enough to bring Dave back home) are transformative and considerable--they redefine the family.

Marian and the other widows must endure one funeral after another after ANOTHER but, ultimately, join together and memorialize their husbands by taking on the rough city. And this is NY: a metropolis that will rely on firefighters in a time of crisis but make them beg and grovel for the most miniscule increases in salary.

With a keen eye for strategy and knowing that this moment in history can help instigate change in the system (you really CAN fight City Hall), Marian and the brave people of her world move forward with inspiring impact.

"A Widow's Walk" shows that true love lives on even in the cruel way that life moves us forward. And that journey is never the way it is in the movies: it is often travelled with pitfalls and self-doubt, guilt and fear but, in the end, esteem and the love that remains deep inside a heart of steel.

This is a book written from the deepest sadness imaginable, but while it is terribly moving, it is not sad.

Marian Fontana has filled A Widow's Walk with her life and love for her husband, Dave. So much so that you end up wishing you could have known them together.

But of course, Dave was a firefighter who she lost on 9/11, a date which also happened to be their anniversary. Nice touch, god.

For those of us who have wondered: What would we do? Fontana takes us through the year that followed with the skill of a novelist, showing us the amazing network of support that she found in the lives she and her husband had touched.

Compulsively readable and admirably non-political (for the most part), it is as fine a tribute as I can imagine for a father and a husband.

I agree with some of the other reviewers on here, the first half of this book was an amazing window into Marian's soul, her grief and sense of humor and love for her family and life comes through. The stories about her going to the many many wakes and funerals for fellow fireman both brought a tear to my eye and made me laugh out loud. The second half got too political, and lost whatever momentum she had built up in the beginning. It was as if she had just thought "well I have to make the book longer so I am going to put a bunch of trivial stuff and run on about the mayor and Hillary and other people no one cares about." I wanted to hear more about her relentless passion to carry on her husbands and his coworker's legacy, and how as a widow she dealt with her son and Dave's family. We all know what went on after 9/11 on the news, but behind closed doors is where we as Americans need to see how the spirit of faith and love and perseverance lives on. I would recommend this book to anyone, but warn them that it gets bogged down in the middle so be wary.

I originally bought this book for the sole reason that Marian and i were childhood friends who grew up on the same street together in Staten Island. I knew of Dave's death shortly after 9/11 and kept Marian and her family in my thoughts daily.
I knew Marian was gifted but was totally unprepared for how much this book would touch me and change my life. I now view the people i love in a different way.
Her book was beautiful and so well written. I felt like i can somewhat understand what all of these brave people went through both firefighters and their families, in the wake of 9/11.

To be honest, I am generally not a fan of memoirs of this type. I mean yes this is a woman who suffered a profound tragedy but does this mean she can write? Well, after devouring it's nearly 450 pages in a couple of sittings, I think it can be said, that Marian Fontana is a writer. A damn good one. She deserves not only to have her story told but to tell it herself. This is both an honest and humorous look at the grieving process as well as a fascinating piece of history. Fontana's account of how she and her some of her fellow widows organized and stood up not only for 911 victims and their families, but for firemen themselves, gives us an inside look at just how these men who perform the most dangerous and lauded of work, are basically treated like crap. There is something very special about this book and just how close it puts you to the incredilby profound grief that enveloped Ms. Fontana's life. Yet, I never really felt sorry for her because I don't think she allows the reader to do that. She is a strong person yet she admits her flaws, thus making her even stronger. This is a must read for anyone interested in 9-11 as well as anyone interested in grief, love and loss.

Marian Fontana lost her husband, Dave, on what should have been their eighth wedding anniversary. Instead of spending the day with her husband, laughing and celebrating, she watched in disbelief and horror as the World Trade Center came down - she knew in that instant that the love of her life and the father of her child was dead.

What follows is a year in which she struggles through every emotion imaginable. She is hollowed out with grief, and at times, wants to join Dave and leave all her troubles behind. She is expected to be a loving and patient mom to a little boy who has lost his Daddy and who is too young to understand, and she is angry. Angry at the monsters who slammed into the buildings, angry at the endless red tape and bureaucracy that tangles her days and fills her inbox and, occasionally, furious with Dave for leaving her to run into the Towers. He and the other 342 firefighters who ran in saved more than 25,000 people that morning, but he left Marian and Aidan behind to do so. The most painful, and truthful, section for me to read was the one when she cursing Dave for leaving her alone when he promised that they would grow old together. I was grateful for her honesty in sharing her anger with the rest of us.

Marian channeled her grief into an organization for the widows and family members of those lost on that murderous day, and her life has taken a turn that she couldn't have imagined, and didn't want. She is a gifted writer, and one who is brutally honest about the stupidity she is facing and the pain she cannot escape.

This is what truly matters about 9-11. The politics and the "who knew what when" are important, sure. But what it boils down to, and what matters deep in one's soul, are the thousands of love stories that were interrupted. Love stories just like this one. It is our blessing that Marian Fontana is gifted enough to put it on the page. Thanks to her, her son Aidan will never forget who his father was, and now, none who read this book will, either.

"A Widow's Walk" is so much more than a memoir about the tragedy of 9/11. It is about a love story - not only a love story between Marian and her firefighter husband Dave, who died when the towers collapsed, but between Marian and so many others whose lives this remarkable woman touched.

The book begins at 8:15 AM on Marian and Dave's anniversary - September 11, 2001. Her husband was not supposed to be at work but was on the job because Marian had insisted he switch shifts so that they could celebrate their anniversary together. They were to meet in ten minutes at Connecticut Muffin to begin their anniversary day together. Dave never showed up.

The reader will not be able to put the book down. It is at turns tragic, hilarious, heartbreaking, but never dull. Although you, the reader, knows the outcome of that fateful day, we never stop hoping that Marian's beautiful smiling husband will walk through the door with roses for her anniversary. We not only feel her grief but the grief of many other firefighter's families as they find out their loved ones will never come home. And yes, Mrs. Fontana, although circumpect, minces no words when speaking out against how she feels President Bush has "squandered a rare moment when the world's nations came to support America in the wake of 9/11."

More importantly, the love between mother and son shines through on every page. Telling any child their parent is dead is heartwrenching. Mrs. Fontana did so and continues to treat Aidan with dignity and respect. We can all learn from them both.

Regardless of one's politics the reader cannot come away from this book without an enormous amount of respect for this woman and wishing that you had a best friend just like her.

This book was poignant, thought-provoking and profoundly honest. Marian Fontana was able to put deeply personal emotions into words and give insight into the pain of 9/11 which went far beyond the obvious. As the wife of a firefighter, I was especially touched by this book. I admire her ability to advocate on behalf of the other families, and facilitate meaningful changes.

This book kept my attention. It showed the events of 9/11 and it's aftermath on a very human level. We all know how we felt as members of our nation. A Widow's Walk explained what it was like for those who suffered more personal losses... the losses of husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and entire battalions of firemen. Oddly enough, Maria Fontana is able to inject a bit of dark humor while trying to grasp, cope with, and explain all that has happened. A good read.

I agree with other posters giving this book 2 to 3 stars. Like those others, I could hardly put it down for the first half. After that, I was bored silly with all the meetings, organizations, TV interviews, travel, yawwwwnnn... And too bad, because the beginning was very poignant, very tender. I can't imagine what this was like for her and so many others who lost so much on that day.

I also felt that she used way too many similes, even though they were good ones (her son's eyebrows looked like dancing caterpillars! How clever is that?)...in some paragraphs there were five of them...'his hair was as /// as a ///..'Was there a contest to see how many she could use on a page?

Reading it just over the weekend of 9/11/11, I realized her son is now a teenager. I hope they are doing well.

The book is still worth reading, just be prepared to be on overload after the picture section or so.