Rating: 
Summary: If you only read one book on 9/11, this should be it.
Review: This book is one of the most devastating things you will ever read. This is not a tale of blood and gore and the evil that men do. Rather, this is the back-story to a firehouse that responded on 9/11. You get to know the men. You get to know their humour, their temper, their personalities. Then, you get some small sense of the loss that this world has felt since FDNY lost 343 heroic firefighters that day. They were not nameless and faceless statistics, but each one was a person. Each one answered a higher calling. This book is fully deserving of your attention.
As a side note, to my brothers in the fire service out there, keep this one away from the wife. She will cry for days.
Rating:
Summary: The quiet courage of Americans
Review: This book sums up the problem with Halberstam's career in journalism - - - he has an ongoing fascination with power, courage, heroism and duty without ever quite understanding the origins of these qualities of character. Quite simply, courage exists because anything else is unthinkable. This is a tribute to firefighters who responded to the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. It may well be the best book written about the human side of the event, a focus on one firehouse where 12 of the 13 men who responded were killed. Anyone who's read The New York Times since is very familiar with the format of personal snapshots that Halberstam uses, and he does a credible job in a much expanded version of what the Times could ever offer. But, he seems to be left grasping for an answer to "Why did they do it?" My response, quite simply, is because they couldn't do anything else. Halberstam outlines the spirit of camaraderie among firefighters in the first half of the book, very similar to a military unit where people train, live, play and work together. They become family, as close as their other families of wives and parents and children; like a good family, they don't "think" of danger to each other - - - they feel it instinctively. It's the same reaction that occurs in good military units, and among the crews of good ships. Unlike the police, who often have the luxury of waiting for negotiators to defuse a tense situation, firefighters must respond immediately. As Halbertsam points out, being as much as a minute late may cost lives that could otherwise have been saved. His observations from firefighters are like those of soldiers I've interviewed who served in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. It reflects what I've found to be an underlying but absolutely rock-solid quality of Americans - - - regardless of the person, their unquestioning dedication to honor, duty, loyalty when the chips are down. Halberstam offers all the ingredients of this "pudding" in his book, which I think every reader will recognize. My one complaint is that he fails to draw it all together into a coherent analysis and tribute to the enduring American character. In that, he's very like the firefighters he describes; they don't boast, and they're not overly introspective - - - they simply do what needs to be done when whatever it is needs doing. Perhaps it takes a non-American to recognize this fundamental quality of most Americans; not just firefighters, but of all Americans when faced with a crisis. Like most brave people, firefighters don't flaunt their courage; like the astute journalist he is, Halberstam doesn't invent reasons his subjects don't talk about. Yet, it is all in his book. Time and again, readers will recognize gems of courage, duty, honor and selfless dedication to family that good firefighters posses. Perhaps it's the best way to describe what motivated the men of Engine 40/Ladder 35 who responded and died that fateful day. They didn't boast, Halberstam doesn't. Instead, he tells the story of these men who are so like the firefighters in every community. In his low-key manner, he describes qualities of ordinary Americans which draws the admiration of the world. Had he tried for more, he would have come across as a pretentious twit. Instead, when you read this book, there's a real sense of the heroism that shone through like a beacon on Sept. 11, 2001. Halberstam has done a masterful job. As a foreigner, let me recommend this book as a superb even if understated tribute to the quiet courage of Americans, and especially firefighters.
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