A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11 (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. September 11, 2001, was the eighth anniversary of Fontana's wedding to firefighter Dave;they had plans for a night on the town;and the second day of kindergarten for their son, Aidan. Dave's last call to her was from the World Trade Tower site after the first plane crashed; he promised to call back in 20 minutes. "This is the worst day of my life," he said. The first chapters of this book follow the grim days of waiting and hoping almost hour by hour, then chronicle the first few of an endless succession of wakes and funerals. Nothing about this widowhood was normal, including its morbid celebrity, the attention of Mayor Giuliani and Senator Clinton and the sometimes predatory media, and the gifts and perks showered on the families. Fontana quickly became a leader in the sisterhood of grieving women (Dave's Brooklyn company, Squad 1, lost 12 men) and is now the president of the 9/11 Widows and Victims' Family Association. Her book is far more personal than political, however, and Fontana's keen eye and ear make for an absorbing account of the first year of coping with historic tragedy. Trained as a comedian and actress, she has been writing skits and monologues since graduating from the High School of Performing Arts, and her observations are colorful, often funny and sometimes merciless. With its built-in drama and pathos and excellent pacing, this book should bring Fontana to the attention of talk shows nationwide.
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From The Washington Post

Like the Vietnam War, World War II, the Holocaust and other catastrophes, Sept. 11 has generated a new genre in contemporary literature. Everyone from Dan Rather to Jonathan Safran Foer to the 9/11 Commission has written a book related to the terrorist attacks.

But perhaps the most devastating books are those written by family members who lost a loved one that day, such as Lisa Beamer's Let's Roll and Lyz Glick's Your Father's Voice -- both by women whose husbands were among the passengers who seized control of United Airlines Flight 93 from the hijackers. When reading their stories, one doesn't consider literary merit. Rather, it is the commonplace humanity of their losses that grabs hold of a reader. How many times has a spouse left for a business trip, boarded a plane, kissed a young child goodbye? But for Glick and Beamer, their husbands never returned, and the reader is left thinking: That could have been me.

Now Marian Fontana joins this sad genre with her memoir, A Widow's Walk. Fontana's husband, Dave, a firefighter in Brooklyn's elite Squad 1, died in the World Trade Center. Like others who have told their stories of loss, Fontana documents the events of that day and the horrible days that followed. But not only is her material gripping; she is also a writer of considerable talent, and her narrative skill draws the reader in.

An actress, writer and comedienne before Sept. 11, Fontana describes the simplest details with grace and strength: "Outside the sky is so blue, it looks as if it has been ironed."

Sadly, we have become accustomed to the personal dramas of that awful day. It is a challenge to anyone writing about Sept. 11 to breathe something new into the story. But Fontana manages to infuse her book with enough humor, anger and observation to make the anger and loss fresh again.

Sept. 11 happened to be the Fontanas' wedding anniversary, and A Widow's Walk opens with optimism -- the start of a month-long vacation, coffee together at Park Slope's Connecticut Muffin, a trip to the Whitney Museum -- and hope. With their son, Aidan, in kindergarten, Dave is full of ideas for the future: He will pursue art, he will get a master's degree in history. We read these details with a lump in our throats that only grows larger as the morning inches toward 9:58 a.m. and the collapse of the South Tower.

Although Dave Fontana's shift was done, he, like many other firefighters, responded to the call at the World Trade Center that day. As his wife moves through the routine motions of her morning -- dropping Aidan at school, greeting neighbors on the street, sipping coffee while she waits for Dave at Connecticut Muffin -- the reader is already crying for Marian and Aidan and everyone else who blithely lived their lives that morning, unaware of the catastrophe awaiting them. Even after a friend sees Marian and tells her that a plane has crashed into the twin towers, she only wonders for an instant if Dave went, then decides, "It's our anniversary. He's probably at home waiting for me in bed."

But of course, Dave did go. A Widow's Walk documents the excruciating minutes and then hours that led Fontana and her family and friends to this realization. Those hours became days and months until, at book's end, a year had passed. In that year, Fontana attended countless funerals and became an advocate for those left behind -- and, ultimately, president of the 9/11 Widows and Victims' Families Association. She also struggled to capture the depths of loss. "I feel insane with grief," she writes. "I am unabashed in my crying. I wail out loud, the sounds primal and raw against my throat."

Even as Fontana grieves, though, she finds humor -- in the oversized funeral wreaths that became a staple at the firemen's wakes; in the woman in church who said, just two days later, surrounded by people standing to pray for their loved ones to be found: "I pray for all the pets who are waiting for their owners to return"; and in countless other places. She depicts her son's unfeeling and unsympathetic kindergarten teacher and the politicians who surrounded the victims' families with a sharp eye and biting observations.

To read A Widow's Walk is to feel that you are walking beside Marian Fontana. Although the ending is too neat, too tied to the false idea that grief subsides in a year, Fontana cannot be blamed for wanting to end her book on a hopeful note. But the simple fact that a person can endure such grief and still remain standing, and can then write about that journey with wit and honesty and love, is hope enough for all of us.

Reviewed by Ann Hood
Copyright 2005, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 edition (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743246241
• ISBN-13: 978-0743246248
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,992 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A STUNNING ODYSSEY OF GRIEF AND RENEWAL, August 30, 2005

By	Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr. "AJGNYC11" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be not sad, September 26, 2005

By	B. A Varkentine (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unbelievably touching book, September 18, 2005

By	Jennifer Bowes - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.