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Summary: what is a hero?
Review: This novel is about David Fitzgerald, an above average teacher at New York's Coney Island High School. He is teaching his student's about character's in literature and what being a hero, or being tested is. David becomes a hero and then is tested by becoming a pariah. The media put's him on a pedestal and than cut's the pedestal down in a matter of hour's.
The character's the author creates become people we care about and empathize with, even the mad bomber.
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Summary: Terrific. A thinking man's thriller.
Review: A great combination of John Le Carre-type sophisticated suspense and Richard Price urban grittiness. Blauner not only knows how to keep the pages turning, he knows how to make us care about the unlikeliest of characters. An intelligent and unexpected pleasure,
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Summary: Strikes true in an age where the media defines the news.
Review: Combines a taut thriller with a commentary on today's media and how the news is quite often slanted for the sake of sensationalism. A satisfying end without being a fairy tale.
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Summary: Entertaining and thought-provoking
Review: easily one of the most interesting books Ive read this year and one of themost exciting too. Great characters, compelling plot, good writing.
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Summary: Incomplete
Review: Having read this book post-9/11, I found some of the references to Afganistan and the mindset of the bomber and his comrades very interesting. However, I was disappointed that many of the characters were described so vividly but then they disappear and never are mentioned again. So what was the point? I gave this book to my mother-in-law. I told her that I didn't want it back. It's not a "keeper" and I don't recommend purchasing it.
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Summary: Sorry I read it
Review: I found Man of the Hour to be very unsatisfying. The action scenes were not suspenseful. The characters, particularly the school children, were painfully stereotypical. Nor were any characters particularly likable. I'm sure Blauner was going for an "imperfect hero" type in his protagonist, because he bluntly tells us this during the course of the story (his symbolism is about an inch deep,) but, wow, he could have tried to make him at least realistic. The teacher's supposedly "hip" style of talking to the children and his quest to "connect" with them is sadly unimaginative and sometimes just plain embarrassing to read. Most frustrating is Blauner's penchant for telling us what people are feeling or why they're performing particular acts. I'd much rather observe their behavior myself and draw my own conclusions. Blauner's obtuse narrative style makes for a very impersonal and unchallenging book. On the plus side, it's pretty short.
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Summary: Superb story
Review: I only wonder if Richard Jewell, the security guard unjustly blamed for the Olympic Park Bombing, has a copy. I read it in one day.
Rating:
Summary: Suprisingly Good
Review: I picked this book up from a second hand book store for something to read on the train into work. Well I could not put this book down until I finished it. The book has the intrigue and action of the film 'Seige' without the marshal Law . The teacher who gets framed, the students blaming him, the FBI being the FBI. Lastly the parents not wanting the teacher in the vicinty of their children. He has to find the real bomber before he loses self control and his own life.
Rating:
Summary: Suprisingly Good
Review: I picked this book up from a second hand book store for something to read on the train into work. Well I could not put this book down until I finished it. The book has the intrigue and action of the film 'Seige' without the marshal Law . The teacher who gets framed, the students blaming him, the FBI being the FBI. Lastly the parents not wanting the teacher in the vicinty of their children. He has to find the real bomber before he loses self control and his own life.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, cardboard cutout characters
Review: I picked up this book after hearing about it on the radio. I just finished it, and I have to say that it could have been a really great book. The plot line was very interesting, and the portrayal of the media, and how a person gets tried and convicted by them before stepping foot in a court of law was spot on. However, I was very disappointed in the author's characters. Not a one of them was very original, and I would say most of them, especially the kids in the class (except for Elizabeth) and Nasser and his friends were so stereotypical that I found myself not really caring what happened. If you can forgive (or at least deal with) the characters, this is a thrilling, fast, fun read.
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