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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towersby Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The dramatic and moving account of the struggle for life inside the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, when every minute counted.
At 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers — reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World. Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the people who lived it — until now. Of the millions of words written about this wrenching day, most were told from the outside looking in. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have taken the opposite — and far more revealing — approach. Reported from the perspectives of those inside the towers, 102 Minutes captures the little-known stories of ordinary people who took extraordinary steps to save themselves and others. Beyond this stirring panorama stands investigative reporting of the first rank. An astounding number of people actually survived the plane impacts but were unable to escape, and the authors raise hard questions about building safety and tragic flaws in New York's emergency preparedness. Dwyer and Flynn rely on hundreds of interviews with rescuers, thousands of pages of oral histories, and countless phone, e-mail, and emergency radio transcripts. They cross a bridge of voices to go inside the infernos, seeing cataclysm and heroism, one person at a time, to tell the affecting, authoritative saga of the men and women — the nearly 12,000 who escaped and the 2,749 who perished — as they made 102 minutes count as never before. Review:"Drawn from thousands of radio transcripts, phone messages, e-mails and interviews with eyewitnesses, this 9/11 account comes from the perspective of those inside the World Trade Center from the moment the first plane hit at 8:46 a.m. to the collapse of the north tower at 10:28 a.m. The stories are intensely intimate, and they often stir gut-wrenching emotions. A law firm receptionist quietly eats yogurt at her desk seconds before impact. Injured survivors, sidestepping debris and bodies, struggle down a stairwell. A man trapped on the 88th floor leaves a phone message for his fiance: 'Kris, there's been an explosion....I want you to know my life has been so much better and richer because you were in it.' Dwyer and Flynn, New York Times writers, take rescue agencies to task for rampant communications glitches and argue that the towers' faulty design helped doom those above the affected floors ('Their fate had been sealed nearly four decades earlier, when...fire stairs were eliminated as a wasteful use of valuable space'). In doing so, the authors frequently draw parallels to similar safety oversights aboard the ill-fated Titanic nearly 90 years before. Their reporting skills are exceptional; readers experience the chaos and confusion that unfolded inside, in grim, painstaking detail. B&w photos. Agent, Philippa Brophy. (Jan. 12)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Flynn and Dwyer...celebrate the extraordinary capacities of ordinary folk. Swift, photographic prose defines the dimensions of hell — and of humanity." Kirkus Reviews Review:"In this heart-stopping, meticulous account of the minutes between the first plane crash and the collapse of the north tower, [Dwyer and Flynn] unflinchingly place the reader in the minds and hearts of the people who actually confronted our worst fears." James B. Stewart, The New York Times Book Review Review:"[A]n unbearably painful but indispensable account....[A] taut, minute-by-minute account..." Booklist (Starred Review) Review:"[U]nsparing, eloquent....With its consistently clear prose, 102 Minutes does an admirable job of conveying this chaos without replicating it." The Washington Post Review:"[An] artful compilation...[that] provides several contexts for the horrendous things that came to pass...[and] brings the human experience of disaster into focus." Boston Herald Review:"[A] masterpiece of reporting....[A] remarkably comprehensive account....[A] brilliant and troubling book..." Kevin Baker, The New York Times Review:"It took the authors three years to describe what happened in 102 minutes....The book is worth the wait." Providence Journal Review:"[I]t's the individual stories of what was happening inside the towers...that pack a powerful emotional punch....[A] poignant, emotion-stirring and important book, though not an easy read at times." Denver Post Review:"Harrowing, deeply reported....Insightful, compassionate, and unrelievedly tense, 102 Minutes creates a hellishness we once thought could exist only in places like Dresden and Stalingrad, never here, never in Manhattan." Baltimore Sun Review:"A can't-put-down account....Although well constructed, the book would have benefited from a good editing to sharpen and clarify certain passages. The human stories are so compelling, however, that few readers will notice." San Antonio Express-News Synopsis:Of the millions of words written about September 11, 2001, most were told from the outside looking in. New York Times reporters Dwyer and Flynn have taken the opposite — and far more revealing — approach, capturing the little-known stories of the nearly 12,000 ordinary people who took extraordinary steps to save themselves and others. About the AuthorJim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, native New Yorkers, veteran newspaper reporters, and winners of many awards together and separately, now write for the New York Times. Dwyer is co-author of Two Seconds Under the World, an account of the 1993 effort to knock down the World Trade Center, and of Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted. He is also the author of Subway Lives: 24 Hours in the Life of the New York City Subway. Flynn, a special projects editor at the Times, was the newspaper's police bureau chief on September 11. He previously worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, New York Newsday, and the Stamford Advocate. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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