9/11

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass was my latest listen. It was a long one, 19 discs. A great book though. I ended up having to get a copy cause one of the discs didn't work at all. I tend to do this with the ones I'm listening to. Sometimes I don't have the patience to wait until I'm in the car to get further in it.

The story was hard to follow in the beginning but the characters kept me interested in knowing what would happen next in their lives. I also somehow forgot that at some point the book would work its way to 9/11. If I have any criticism of the book, it's that this did not happen until almost the very end. At the same time, at first this bothered me, but the more I think about it, the author may have known what she was doing with this placement.

The book begins by introducing Greenie, one of the main characters. As readers we learn about her family and some of her friends. There are about half a dozen characters we get to see the story from. All the characters lives intertwine in a unique way and at the end of the book we see the affects of 9/11 on these characters lives.

When I started the book I knew 9/11 would be in there somewhere. Since I was mostly listening to the book though, I forgot this information until it came up in the book. Then I literally sat up and (was reading it at the time) started frantically flipping the pages. I was taken back to my senior year of high school during homeroom when we got the news of what was going on. I wasn't close to being in New York and yet I felt scared. I felt nervous for my cousins and uncle, my cousins living in New York and my uncle in DC. I felt sick, knowing and loving New York and not knowing what was happening. It all seemed so insane that day and the days that followed. About a month after 9/11 my family and I unfortunately had to travel to NY for a funeral (unrelated to 9/11 but a tragedy for us the same). I saw ground zero around 2am as we drove in sleepy and sorrowful. I think we will all carry our own memories of that day/time with us forever.

This book put me back in that place for a moment. Back when Sister C came on the speaker and we all thought she was joking, about to say something about a chocolate bar fundraiser or something else she would normally be talking about. Seeing it through fictional characters eyes who were actually in New York was almost as scary as hearing from those I knew in New York. It was an odd place to go back to, even if for just a few pages.

Excellent read if you have the patience for a longer book.

Current Listen: Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (also 9/11 related I believe)