Rating: 
Summary: A must read
Review: Living in NYC and having a cousin who worked and died at Cantor Fitzgerald, i was interested to read about that day and what the company did afterwards......I couldn't put the book down. What an amazing story of perserverance in such a time of sadness and shock. You realize while reading this what a bum deal Howard Lutnick got at first from the media, when he was doing everything in his power to keep the business going so that the victims could get money while at the same time mourning his brother, best friend and 656 of his employees. This book also has stories of others at Cantor who weren't at the building at the time of the attack due to a missed train, a meeting or vacation. There is also the stories of the phone calls from those in the building to other Cantor offices and families. This book has it all, it will make you cry, it will make you remember and most of all it will make you feel proud to see a company survive due to the sheer determination of its CEO and surviving employees to make sure that the families of their dead collegues are taken care of.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth
Review: Mr. Barbash did a wonderful job in expressing Mr. Lutnick's personality and emotion. He shed the light on the media (Connie Chung & Bill O'Reilly) and their manipulations, inacuracies and overall disdain for truth when it comes to responsible reporting.
This book needs to be read.
Rating:
Summary: Overall, the best book about a terrible event.
Review: Not just a 9/11 book, but a fully developed and fleshed-out account of the tragedy, what went before, and the aftermath - the amazing resurgence of a trading firm after coming close to being wiped out.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Example of Strength over Adversity
Review: Not living on the East Coast,one might think you understand what the victims and survivors went through. But a book like this gives a vivid picture of just what the ramifications were from so many perspectives. I was aware of the losses by Cantor Fitzgerald but was not that aware of the negative press about Howard Lutnick (not an O'Reilly fan). One may be skeptical of any book that portrays a man so heroically, but if half is true, I am incredibly impressed. It would have been understandable for most anyone in his position to have closed the doors of the company. To have the presence of mind to work through his own personal loss and keep the company going under such circumstances shows there are people in this world that are just born to lead. Almost as impressive was the dedication shown by the other members of his company, especially in the days immediately following the attack. Great story and well written.
Rating: 
Summary: Better writing + more time (would have) = a better book
Review: The cataclysm (on many fronts) of September 11 in the United States came home to Cantor Fitzgerald to an extent unthinkable in other stories written to recount company disasters. Entire business divisions wiped out. Management levels both broad and deep decimated. Historical knowledge of a highly specialized industry vaporized in moments. A hard-won, top-dog position in a segment of the cut-throat financial markets thrown into terminal condition - to say nothing of the overwhelming human impact on hundreds of siblings, parents, friends, and extended families and communities. It's difficult to write a tepid review of this book without risking exposure to a similar storm of criticism visited on William Langewiesche of "American Ground" when he spoke of fire fighters' treatment of their fallen colleagues versus civilian dead at the World Trade Center/Ground Zero site. But "On Top of the World" had so much potential. It makes me sad to see that potential frittered away in the rush to publish. In more skilled hands that would have structured a better narrative, and with the benefit of some additional "aftermath" time (although one could argue that in many respects, such "aftermath" will never be reached), "On Top of the World" could have shared many lessons on both human and business fronts. Plus it still would have raised boatloads of money to help support the Cantor Fitzgerald families left behind. Ironically, however, the resulting book that is "On Top of the World" squandered its potential just as surely as the Trade Center collapse ended the potential of many high-performing and bright people. The narrative voice is so confused and vacillates so much that I had a hard time determining where Howard Lutnick left off and the "author" Barbash picked up. And while I realize that the book was as much about Lutnick as the aftermath of Cantor Fitzgerald, after several chapters I tired mightily of reading about "Howard this" and "Howard that." (Although I did wonder why Howard - or someone close to him - didn't realize they should have retained public relations/media counsel BEFORE ever letting Connie Chung near him.) With all Allison Lutnick must have endured to create the Cantor Fitzgerald support center, she gets Academy Award-type "thanks hon" recognition from her husband; Barash's inclusion of even a few paragraphs of her first-person recollection would have added some substance to this narrative without spoiling the "one man, driven" focus of the book. In reading through the chapters, I continually looked for more background and fuller perspectives to understand WHY this loss, of THIS cluster of 658 individuals, was so profound. What were Cantor Fitzgerald's families really like? Was the drive to make money and spend time with their children all there was to their lives? Why was it so important to get eSpeed back up and running - and what would have been the ripple effects on the U.S. economy if that effort had failed? What did it really take for the heroic London office to assume key corporate functions until Cantor could begin to recover? Like so much else in this book, platitudes and generalizations were offered as full explanations when more substance was required. "Opportunity lost" was so much the story of September 11. And sadly, my lasting impression on reading this book. It could have been so much more.
Rating:
Summary: Unwittingly Revealing
Review: The rating given this book may seem harsh at first, but then that's because the author's intent is to defend an old college buddy's reputation. A careful reading of the book will reveal that Mr. Lutnick formed several very useful friendships at Haverford College, and that those friendships assisted him in his rather ruthless rise to the top. That several of those friends perished is of course a tragedy, but it also suggests that Mr. Lutnick's sense of having to help those families was as much a personal one as a business one, and that in turn Mr. Barbash is helping out an old Haverford buddy much as this little group had always helped each other. The true victims of 9/11 perished that fateful day or were family or loved ones to those who did (and in this sense Mr. Lutnick is a victim, for he suffered the loss of a brother and several good friends, including Calvin Gooding and Doug Gardner). But Mr. Barbash's indulgent look at Mr. Lutnick's evoling sense of victimhood is too much of an apology, and overlooks the fact that these Haverford boys were interested in doing well as well as doing good.
Rating:
Summary: A Tribute to Brainwashing and Propaganda
Review: The reviews reproduced here are a tribute to Tom Barbash, just as Barbash wrote the book as a tribute -- and an exhoneration -- to his college buddy Howard Lutnick. Therein lies the tale. Barbash and Lutnick have artfully exploited the suffering of others -- one to write a book (and to promote a novel), the other to strike an innocent pose. It worked! Look at the reviews that blindly defend the book and charge that any criticism of it is tantamount to insensitivity toward the victims of 9/11!
This is wonderful propaganda indeed, and if I were to grade it on that scale the book would get five stars. Lutnick's obsession with looking good and Barbash's equally atrocious commitment to whitewashing exploits grief as it turns anger onto others. Sickening.
Rating:
Summary: Shame reaches new level, and I reach my limit.
Review: The story of September 11...as told by Cantor Fitzgerald, by Howard, by Barbash (the ghost writer who won the byline after Lutnick dropped his). This thing is too far removed. Interesting angle but what I want to hear is Lutnick's own honest words, not some ghost writer take thirty minutes of audio and then stamping out a novel for quick publication. Alright, in all fairness this guy Barbash was old buddies with Lutnick and claims to have "shadowed" him for awhile after the trajedy. But this book doesn't really amount to much, and I just didn't enjoy it in the least.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Read - Interesting, Powerful, Self-Serving / Promoting
Review: This book is exceptionally powerful, reasonably well-written and blatantly self-serving. The good aspects overwhelm the bad by a wide margin. Everyone has heard the story by now, but what makes this so powerful is the reality behind the story. First-hand accounts of the horror, and perhaps most importantly, the aftermath within the whole of the Cantor family are especially moving. Even though this book was clearly written "through" Lutnick, his journey through the aftermath of 9/11 and the importance of his actions cannot be diminished. The ways in which the national news media sensationalized the tragedy for their own ratings is nauseating - although not surprising. Despite the fact that Connie Chung and O'Reilly no longer remain in the national arena of respected journalists, it is frustrating that they worked so hard to sabotage the healing process of the victim's families, and exploit the emotional fog which overcame them by instigating fear and helplessness. Throughout the last few months of 2001, Lutnick does well to counter the national media's feeble attempts at honest story-telling, and shows in his actions what he had promised from the very beginning of the aftermath. He did in fact take care of these families, and in a way that goes well above and beyond what most would consider "reasonable." A great read, impossible to put down. Just keep in mind that the author is great friends with Lutnick.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read - Interesting, Powerful, Self-Serving / Promoting
Review: This book is exceptionally powerful, reasonably well-written and blatantly self-serving. The good aspects overwhelm the bad by a wide margin. Everyone has heard the story by now, but what makes this so powerful is the reality behind the story. First-hand accounts of the horror, and perhaps most importantly, the aftermath within the whole of the Cantor family are especially moving. Even though this book was clearly written "through" Lutnick, his journey through the aftermath of 9/11 and the importance of his actions cannot be diminished. The ways in which the national news media sensationalized the tragedy for their own ratings is nauseating - although not surprising. Despite the fact that Connie Chung and O'Reilly no longer remain in the national arena of respected journalists, it is frustrating that they worked so hard to sabotage the healing process of the victim's families, and exploit the emotional fog which overcame them by instigating fear and helplessness. Throughout the last few months of 2001, Lutnick does well to counter the national media's feeble attempts at honest story-telling, and shows in his actions what he had promised from the very beginning of the aftermath. He did in fact take care of these families, and in a way that goes well above and beyond what most would consider "reasonable." A great read, impossible to put down. Just keep in mind that the author is great friends with Lutnick.
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