At 8.46am on September 11, 2001, more than 14,000 people were inside the Twin Towers in New York. To them it was just the start of another routine day at work. Over the next 102 minutes each would become part of a drama that changed the world for ever.
Of the millions of words written about that unforgettable day, most have been by outsiders. But “New York Times” reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn report solely from the perspective of those struggling to survive inside the towers; “102 Minutes” is the epic account of ordinary men and women finding the bravery and courage to overcome unbelievable odds.
Fateful split-second decisions, chance encounters in smoke-filled stairwells, the heroism of the emergency services who climbed up as everyone else was coming down – this is the authoritative account of the men and women in the World Trade Center – the 12,000 who escaped and the 2,749 who perished.
In the lead up to the tenth anniversary of this tragedy I bought this book hoping to learn more about the events of that day and discover more about the people who were lucky enough to survive. I’m not going to lie, it’s not an easy book to read. I don’t mean it’s written in a complicated manner, far from it, but it’s obviously a very emotive subject to read about. The book begins at 8.30am with people in the North Tower starting to arrive for work or enjoying breakfast in Windows on the World and you get some background on the people that are being described, which is so hard as you know what’s coming. It’s extremely well written with the entire 102 minutes set out and time stamped with full descriptions of what is going on in which tower. You read stories of lucky escapes and tragic deaths and really get a good feel for each person who’s story is being told. There was so much about this event that I didn’t know. Such as the animosity between FDNY and NYPD and also that another agency, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had jurisdiction as well. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and reading about people in the South Tower being told not to evacuate when you know a plane is about to hit is awful but at the time nobody knew the full scale of the situation. Nothing is glamourised or exaggerated, the facts are painstakingly laid out based on recordings of communications and interviews with survivors. It’s very emotionally draining to read as there is a lot of detail about people’s lives and as it gets nearer to the time of the towers collapsing I became more and more invested in people’s escape. I wanted them all to get out but obviously that was not to be.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the 9/11 attacks or anyone who wants to read a factual, unbiased account of events inside the Twin Towers.
thebookwormery 