Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbeder

 

"this isn't a thriller; it is simply an attempt - doomed, perhaps - to describe the indescribable."

For those of you like me who never visited Manhattan prior to 9/11 (I had a sweet 16 trip planned for my birthday on September 13th, 2001, which was obviously postponed) the Windows on the World was the restaurant that sat atop the 107th story of the north tower. After Flight 11 hit the north tower, those who were in the restaurant survived the impact, but all eventually died. Beigbeder's novel Windows of the World is the fictional account of a father and his two sons who became trapped in the restaurant of the twin towers after the attacks commenced.

As you can probably guess, this novel was truly heartbreaking and incredibly moving. No one trapped above the crash site survived so at its center, this is a story about death. I decided to pick it up shortly before Christmas and wouldn't you know, it was the first book I read all year that made me cry. Aside from the poignant subject matter, Beigebeder structures the novel to emphasize the heartbreaking and catastrophic details of that tragic morning; each chapter represents one minute beginning at 8:30am and finishes when the tower falls at 10:29am. Each chapter alternates between the story of the family trapped inside the tower and the point of view of an unnamed French author, ruminating about the nature of America, childhood, 9/11, and the role of a writer. By weaving these two stories together, not only does The Windows of the World memorialize the thousands of lives lost on that tragic day, but it also reflects on what it means to be an American, both pre and post 9/11, and what it means to be human. It explores themes of love and redemption; what we may do differently when faced with death and what becomes important when the end of your life is imminent.

What I wanted to tell my sons was that you should never stay with someone you don't love; that you should only be faithful to love and love alone; that you should tell society to piss off as often as possible.

The novel as a whole is bizarre and disjointed (as many post-modernist French novels are), but also incredibly powerful and unique. Though certain passages are perhaps brash, self-indulgent, and controversial, the novel is captivating and incredibly philosophical. It will have you reflecting on your own life and the nature of literature itself.

Publisher: Miramax Books, 2004

A big thanks to my friend Ben for gifting this book to me.

The Submission by Amy Waldman

"There were in life rarely, if ever, "right" decisions, never perfect ones, only the best to be made under the circumstances."

A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winners name - and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into rolling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam. Their conflicted response is only a preamble to the country's.

In short, a jury unknowingly chooses a Muslim American architect to design a 9/11 memorial. However, this is not a 9/11 novel. Waldman never cites the date of the attacks, and doesn't mention The World Trade Center, referring to the attack site simply as "the towers". Of course it's no secret Waldman is referencing 9/11, but she avoids the specifics as a way of emphasizing that instead of focusing on the day itself, the novel explores the extreme tensions and complicated race relations of the post-9/11 world. It should be noted that the premise and later conflict that ensues echos that of the Park51 debate; while similar disputes are explored in The Submision, Waldman gives her novel its own unique voice and memorable cast of characters that makes it stand out from any other non-fictionalized story it may resemble.

Waldman examines every side of the table through a diverse array of characters: those who are in support of the Muslim American architect, those who are not, those who change their mind and, of course, Kahn's own frustrations with the contest. With every point of view introduced, the subtext of the novel becomes more complicated, but never confusing. Ultimately Waldman doesn't tell us who is right or wrong, though she does make clear the blind closed-mindedness of many individuals. Rather, the novel encourages the reader to question how many of our post-9/11 fears are sensible and to what extent they are hurting the Muslim Americans in our country.

The propaganda's coming from the people who want to make you a bogeyman. They are creating a climate where dangerous things can happen. The rhetoric is the first step; it coarsens attitudes. Look at the history of Nazi Germany. The Jews thought they were German, until they werne't. Here they're already talking about us as less American. Then they'll say we need containment, and next thing you know we'll be interned.

As the title implies, Waldman weaves the the theme of submission throughout, working on a number of levels, the most obvious being Muhamed Kahn's submission into the contest to design a memorial - the submission that sets the entire book in motion. But the theme of submission goes deeper: the submission that exists between sexes and the submission that exists between cultures. Waldman also explores the refusal of submission, namely the non-apologetic attitude that is characteristic of modern-day America.

Waldman's fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Boston Review, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010. This is her first novel. If you are looking for a book that will challenge your notions of post 9/11 America, I ask you to let The Submission be it.

A big thanks to my mom for gifting this book to me, it's a favorite of the books I've read so far this year.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

I can't remember where I first read about this book, but I added it to my TBR and I'm glad I did. The story begins as our protagonist Changez meets an American stranger at a cafe in Lahore. He recounts to the American his own experience in America, graduating from Princeton and working in corporate New York City, and his struggle to maintain his old way of life after the 9/11 attacks.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist examines the shifting identity of a Pakistani man who is at odds with both his home country and the country that has been his home for years, America. He is uncertain of his place in the world, both physically and mentally:

I was a modern-day janissary, a servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with a kinship to mine and was perhaps even colluding to ensure that my own country faced the threat of war. Of course I was struggling! Of course I felt torn!

The structure and conversational tone of the narrative makes the novel quite powerful. It offers a glimpse into the life of Muslim who was proud of his accomplishments and life in the US, but quickly became disenchanted with its inner-workings and at odds with his own identity.

Publisher: Mariner, 2007

Falling Man by Don DeLillo

He stood and felt something so lonely he could touch it with his hands.

Don DeLillo is one of my favorite postmodern writers. He portrays modern-day America in a way that makes me question our priorities and culture. He plays with themes of consumerism, mass media, interconnectedness and the human ability to create meaningful relationships. Falling Man explores post-9/11 New York. The title refers to the image of a man who fell from the twin towers (an image that is also used in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close). In DeLillo's novel we see a performance artist who mimics this pose as he dangles from a harness around areas throughout Manhattan. Of course the image of the falling man gives those who see it a feeling of unspeakable dread:

There were people shouting up at him, outraged at the spectacle, the puppetry of human desperation, a body's last fleet breath and what it held. It held the gaze of the world, she thought. There was an awful openness of it, something we'd not seen, the single falling figure that trails a collective dread, body come down among us all.

As this image repeatedly inserts itself into the lives of New Yorkers, the novel follows two narratives; one of a family who is trying to rebuild their lives after the attack and one of a 9/11 terrorist who prepares for the attacks. The post-traumatic recovery of this family is almost as heartbreaking as a glimpse into the life of a terrorist. The family struggles to make sense of their new world just as they struggle to understand one another.

But then she might be wrong about what was ordinary. Maybe nothing was. Maybe there was a deep fold in the grain of things, the way things pass through the mind, the way time swings in the mind, which is the only place it meaningfully exists.

DeLillo's poignant novel implies that we will continuously have to recover from the attacks as they will haunt us forever. Just as the falling man's image will continue to resurface, so will the memory of the atacks. However, rather than focus on the attacks themselves, DeLillo explores how they changed America and the daily lives of Americans. He draws significant comparisons to the "before" world that we knew to the "after". Just as 9/11 itself was chaotic, so were the lives of many American's after that day and for years to come. People struggled to understand the event and then struggled to understand themselves.

I don't know this American anymore. I don't recognize it. There's an empty space where America used to be.

DeLillo builds many layers into this story which makes it seem disjointed and fragmented. I think this structure serves to reinforce the emotions and understanding of the attacks and it's aftermath: haunting, confusing and utterly heartbreaking.

Publisher: Scribner, 2007

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Quite simply, this book is what I consider to be a masterpiece. It won the National Book Award in 2009 which means a lot has been said about this book. It's been featured on other blogs and has been reviewed by important newspapers. Most of these outlets have written about this book more eloquently and more intelligently than I could. So I direct you to the above links, but I will say this: Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin is a book that I will recommend over and over again to readers who appreciate literary fiction. It is a book that explores the human condition and our connection to each other and the world in such a beautiful and truthful way and I will not forget it for a long time.

Publisher: Random House, 2009

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

I'm not quite sure how to review this book, except to say I loved it to pieces. Foer's novel is very post-modern, so it is hard to give it a traditional review. This is a book about making sense of the world around you, coping with loss and learning how to live. 

It was one of the the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about my life at all.

As I mentioned, it's hard to offer a traditional review of this novel, so I am going to offer a list of thoughts:

• Oskar Schell, the novel's protagonist, is one of the most interesting, hilarious and lovable characters I have read since Nichole Krauss' Leo Gursky (The History of Love). 
• This book has more passages that I underlined and circled than any book I've read to date. Foer's prose is beautiful and truthful, and speaks to the reader in a way that makes the ideas very relatable. 
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is my favorite piece of fiction I have read so far this year.
• This is one of those books that reminded me why I love books so much. 

Some of my favorite passages:

"I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it."

"sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living."

"I thought, it's a shame that we have to live, but it's a tragedy that we get to live only one life, because if I'd had two lives, I would have spent one of them with her."

"It made me start to wonder if there were other people so lonely and so close. I thought about "Eleanor Rigby." It's true, where do they all come from? And where do they all belong?"

"Sometimes I imagined stitching all of our little touches together. How many hundreds of thousands of fingers brushing against each other does it take to make love?"

"I regret that is takes a life to learn how to live"

All in all, I truly can't recommend this book enough.

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2005