Review by New York Times Review
THIS BOOK IS PAINFUL to read. Even with the passage of nearly 18 years, reliving modern America's most terrible day hits an exposed nerve that you thought had been fully numbed, only to discover that the ache was merely in remission. In "Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11," Mitchell Zuckoff relives each minute of that morning in 2001 through the perspectives of those who endured the worst: passengers and crew members on the four planes turned into missiles by Islamist hijackers; innocents trapped in the burning twin towers and the Pentagon; rescue workers who struggled valiantly but futilely and, in many cases, fatally; people in Shanksville, Pa., on whom death rained from a clear sky. As much as anything, "Fall and Rise" is a quilt work of futures unrealized, from the woman about to tell her parents she was pregnant to the doctor hoping to build a kidney dialysis center, from the retired bookkeeper set to move in with her daughter to the college student with dreams of becoming a child psychologist. Zuckoff, a professor of narrative studies at Boston University and the author of several nonfiction books, relies on his own interviews with survivors, but also leans heavily on government studies, trial transcripts, books and documentaries long in the public realm. And so the overall picture that he shapes is not really new. But freshness of detail seems less his objective than preservation of memory - an attempt, as he says, "to delay the descent of 9/11 into the well of history." By design, this narrative of close to 500 pages is not encyclopedic. Big Picture grandiosity - how Sept. 11 changed America and the world - has been left to others. The terrorism puppet master Osama bin Laden gets scant attention. Actions (and inactions) of President George W. Bush and his team merit only a few pages. Rudolph Giuliani, who made a lucrative life for himself after 9/11, earns glancing mention. Flawed communications systems that doomed hundreds of New York's emergency responders are not explored with the kind of detail that can be found in, say, "102 Minutes," a 2005 work by the New York Times journalists Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. Rather, this book derives its power from its focus on individuals in the main unknown to the larger world, who managed to survive the ordeal or who lost their lives simply because they were unlucky. With journalistic rigor, Zuckoff acknowledges what he doesn't know, for example how exactly each group of hijackers seized control of its plane. His language is largely unadorned; then again, embellishment is neither needed nor wanted. Many details are hard to take: the melted flesh, the pulverized bodies, the scorched lungs and, for sure, the revived memory of scores of desperate victims leaping from on high to escape the World Trade Center inferno. But there are also inspiring moments, like the grit shown by those aboard United Airlines Flight 93. It was the plane that never reached its target, crashing in Shanksville after passengers revolted against the hijackers. Phone messages that they left "formed a spoken tapestry of grace, warning, bravery, resolve and love." Heroes abound, though not in the way that word is routinely used and abused. Heroism, as we see here, is often a product of necessity. Some may ask if this book, covering territory already well traveled, needed to be written. For those who lived through the horror, perhaps not. But a full generation has come of age with no memory of that day. It needs to hear anew what happened, and maybe learn that time, in fact, does not heal all wounds. CLYDE HABERMAN, the former NYC columnist for The Times, is a contributing writer for the newspaper.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 12, 2019]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The horror and heroism of 9/11 are brought to life in this panoramic history. Boston University journalism professor Zuckoff, who covered the attacks for the Boston Globe, traces the day's events through the stories of dozens of people who experienced them: the hijackers as they put the finishing touches on their plot and set it in motion; the hijacked aircrew and passengers stunned by the unfolding nightmare; the air-traffic controllers, FAA officials, and military officers who struggled to piece together what was happening in the skies (Zuckoff shows how miscommunication delayed crucial measures that might have saved lives); workers in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as they scrambled to escape from the growing infernos; and the firefighters who risked their lives to rescue them. Zuckoff draws skillfully on interviews with survivors, family reminiscences, audio documents (including farewell phone calls from doomed victims), tapes from the cockpit of United Flight 93 where passengers fought to take the plane back from the hijackers, and forlorn notes-one reading "84th floor. West office. 12 people trapped" drifted down from a tower-to flesh out the violence, chaos, and occasional moments of grace. The result is a superb, harrowing retelling of this most dramatic of stories. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
On September 11, 2001, 2,996 people died in a series of four carefully planned, skillfully executed attacks against the United States, notably at the sites of the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia. Then a Boston Globe reporter, Zuckoff (Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Narrative Studies, Boston Univ.; 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi) wrote the lead story on the day of the attacks. Here, he reconstructs the event using a series of vignettes about the four planes and the tragedy that resulted, relating survivors' stories interspersed with what is known of the last minutes of those who perished that day. The author also mentions some of the lasting mental and physical injuries experienced by survivors and first responders. The facts overall are well known, but Zuckoff succeeds in humanizing the terror. He mostly avoids the domestic and international response, instead choosing to focus on the victims and their stories. VERDICT Though difficult to read, this emotional compilation will find a place with other 9/11 histories for its thorough recounting of the human cost of political violence.-Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A meticulously delineated, detailed, graphic history of the events of 9/11 in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania.Working at the Boston Globe as an investigative journalist, Zuckoff (Journalism/Boston Univ.; 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi, 2014, etc.) spent months after 9/11 publishing pieces on the tragedy's victims and their families and friends. He decided to revisit the personal sagas so that future generations of readers will fully understand this watershed moment in American history. The author divides the book into three sections: what happened inside the cabins and cockpits of the four hijacked planes; what happened on the ground at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania countryside; and reports on what happened to some of the survivors after 9/11. Zuckoff mostly avoids references to the hijackers' possible motivations as well as speculation on why the government failed to halt the sometimes-amateurish terrorist plot despite multiple warnings from alert sources. The author also eschews lengthy commentary on the massive reduction in civil liberties in the U.S. as governments at all levels implemented drastic policies to halt future terrorist attacks. In each of the three sections, Zuckoff offers a cross-section of widely representative individuals and then builds the relentlessly compelling narrative around those real-life protagonists. Despite the story's sprawling cast, which could have sabotaged a book by a less-skilled author, Zuckoff ably handles all of the complexities. Even readers who might normally balk at reliving 9/11 and its aftermath are quite likely to find the accounts of gruesome deaths, seemingly miraculous survivals, and courageous first responders difficult to set aside for an emotional break. In two appendices, the author provides a "timeline of key events" and a list of "the nearly three thousand names as they appear inscribed in bronze on the 9/11 Memorial in New York."Zuckoff did not set out to write a feel-good book, and the subject matter is unquestionably depressing at times. Nonetheless, as contemporary history, Fall and Rise is a clear and moving success. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
