Brotherhood (Hardcover)

by Frank McCourt (Author), Rudy Giuliani (Author), Thomas Von Essen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
There could not be a greater contrast than between the cold engineering that leveled the twin towers and the response of the 343 New York firefighters who rushed in to their deaths. Those men are honored in this collection of evocatively understated photographs showing all 70 of the city's affected firehouses, from Red Hook's company of "Happy Hookers" to Harlem's "Fire Factory." The pictures by 50 noted photographers show the firehouses in all attitudes of mourning and recovery, crowded with donated flowers, candles, homemade signs, and children's drawings (some from as far as Mississippi) that have helped buoy up the survivors in the months since the attack. These displays are evidence of a popular rediscovery of firefighters, writes McCourt in his pitch-perfect foreword to the book. All of September 11's FDNY dead are listed delicately across the bottom of the pages of portraits of the lost men's firehouse beds, wall-posters, empty lockers, boots, and heat-darkened helmets, as well as their squad mates struggling on. The iconic buildings in which these rescuers died were themselves memorialized in last fall's The World Trade Center Remembered, a thinking-person's remembrance with an elegant text by architecture critic Paul Goldberger. In that work, the towers lord over the island with their old swagger; the blue-sky backgrounds are not yet ominous, the buildings' steel skins not yet gashed and smoking. Taken together, these two books express a reflective stillness before and after catastrophic horror. They are the class of the many publishing tributes and will serve any reader looking for memorial literature that doesn't patronize or wear a blood shirt. [Proceeds from Brotherhood go to the New York Firefighters 911 Relief Fund. Ed.] Nathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
On 9-11, the most indispensable people at ground zero were New York's firefighters, as pretty much everyone has acknowledged. The headquarters building of American Express was across the street from the World Trade Center, and 11 employees died in the towers. With this book, the company honors the firefighters who died trying to save those 11 and the others. Near the bottom of its pages, beginning on the front endpapers, the names of the lost run in a single line that continues to the back endpapers. The entire roster appears three times, over as well as under brilliant color photographs of the stations that lost those men, their remaining comrades, the ad hoc shrines a grateful citizenry assembled to honor the fallen, and the appreciative artwork and letters that children sent to the stations. In terms of effect, the pictures beggar the brief accompanying remarks of Mayor Giuliani, Fire Commissioner Von Essen, and eulogist Frank McCourt, and they ensure the big book's place in the forefront of 9-11 commemoratives. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Main Street (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916103943
• ISBN-13: 978-0916103941
• Product Dimensions: 13 x 10.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,045,818 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In tears, January 26, 2002

By	James N. Chern (Clark, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Brotherhood (Hardcover)

is the only way I can describe how I felt looking at the images in this beautiful book. God bless the men who made the ultimate sacrifice for others. This book is a breathtaking memoir on their heroism. Hopefully we will never forget

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Minimalist and spare, the way great tributes ought to be..., January 9, 2002

By	David Kusumoto (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Brotherhood (Hardcover)

On October 19, 2001, my wife and I walked more than 50 blocks from downtown to mid-town Manhattan, stopping at each fire station along the way.

Every stop had its own story to tell, without the need for eloquent prose or a "tour guide" leading the way, stating the obvious.

Images of lost firefighters and burning candles were out front, with hand-scrawled tributes plastered on every available space, written by heart-broken individuals from throughout the country, and NOT just from New York.

Of all books attempting to capture the flavor of a well-done tribute to ANY cause or group of individuals (in this case, the Fire Department of New York, now world-renown as FDNY), "Brotherhood" succeeds wonderfully in a way that SHOULD seem obvious to most, but apparently not, especially when compared to countless other "rush to market" though "well-intentioned" tributes of similar bent.

"Brotherhood" follows a perfect, "by-the-dots" formula that all pure "tributes" should follow, at least in terms of composition and design. And that is, use minimal text and heart-wrenching images that speak a thousand words.

Too often, creative teams associated with such efforts go overboard by stating the obvious, manipulating viewer or reader emotions unnecessarily with narration, captions or adjective-filled text to articulate the intangible. The result is a product, however well-intentioned, that is undercut by an over-zealousness to stamp into words, a generic and universal feeling when none are required.

The cumulative effect of image after image -- of empty fire stations, burning candles, faces of those lost, notes written by children, flowers of every hue, empty boots marked by their owners -- is ultimately equal parts devastating and uplifting, without a trace of maudlin excess. Its understated presentation proves to be the best thing going for it.

More than any other symbol, the fire stations of New York City offer the greatest lasting visible personification of courage, its inhabitants giving no thought of what the word itself means other than something that others (you and I) have attached to that innate sense of mission that seems to course through every firefighter's veins.

With introductions by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (the only other major volume blessed with the Mayor's words is "One Nation," by the editors of Life Magazine, which by itself should be enough endorsement), Fire Commissioner Thomas Van Essen and Pulitzer-prize winning author Frank McCourt -- and supplemented by wonderful text absent of cheap sentiment by Tony Hendra -- "Brotherhood" offers a stark blend of prose and spectacular images that enable the reader to conjure his or her own personal set of emotions, without being sledge-hammered into being told how to feel.

As a writer who prefers a mix of substance and tribute over tribute alone, I have surveyed more than 25 products associated with 9/11, and have learned AGAIN to never to judge a book by its cover or by liner notes alone.

To date, "Brotherhood" is one of only a small group of 9/11-related products that truly deserve to be on your permanent shelf, and one of only two pure "tribute books" worthy enough to be labeled, "keepers."

The other volumes, all available ...include: "September 11: A Testimony (by Reuters; the second worthy "pure" tribute available), the aforementioned, "One Nation (by the editors of Life Magazine)," "September 11, 2001: A Record of Tragedy, Heroism, and Hope (by the editors of New York Magazine)" and "The World Trade Center (by Bill Harris)."

Save your money to buy these volumes -- and consider the rest as no more than heartfelt souvenirs and memorials -- worthy of browsing, but not buying.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brotherhood is an apt title, December 26, 2001

By	"carivadnais" (Boerne, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brotherhood (Hardcover)

I purchased this book for my Firefighter husband. I know that, as a firefighter, he felt particularly helpless when this tragedy struck New York, and our country. I feel a great sense of pride in my husband's choice of occupation, and even more so that he is a Volunteer Firefighter. This book is a very moving tribute all of those (not just firefighters) that gave their lives on September 11th. The images contained are extraordinary, and all of us in the family that paged through it became very emotional when we read it. There are very few words, aside from the text written by the Mayor and Mr. McCourt, but the images leave very little need for them. And even more moving is the list of lost souls on the bottom of each page, which I felt assigned a lot more of a personal touch to this tragedy than just knowing the mere numbers of those lost while doing their jobs that day.

I do in fact feel that 'Brotherhood' is a perfect title, because as anyone affiliated with rescue services can tell you, it is a large family. We ALL felt a great sense of loss that day, I think this book is the very LEAST we can do.