Stories of creation and destruction told in an informed and compassionate voice.
A detailed, inspiring, and horrifying account of the restaurant that sat atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Former Premiere senior editor Roston (I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era, 2015) returns with a rich, complex account of Windows on the World, a story the author begins by discussing the many immigrants who worked there—later, he includes one of Donald Trump’s many clueless comments about 9/11. However, politics is much in the background; in the foreground are the many stories of the founders of the restaurant, the local politics (e.g., dealing with the Port Authority, the organization that controlled the site), key workers in the restaurant, the amenities, and the menus. He also chronicles the fundamental changes that occurred after the Feb. 26, 1993, truck-bomb episode. Informed by more than 125 interviews, the text is most impressive for its accounts of the human relationships involved, both the friendships and the fiery competitions among some of the managers. Emerging above all is Joe Baum, the restaurateur, who, writes Roston, “could electrify or freeze a room, depending on his mood.” Baum and his colleagues faced significant challenges in the space. For example, they were not allowed to use natural gas and had to use electricity (which most all disdained) and a charcoal pit, and they were dealing with a rough economy in the mid-1970s. Eventually, however, the restaurant grossed enormous sums and became a New York City institution. Roston concludes with some very painful chapters about 9/11: the day before, the day of, the days after. All who were in the restaurant died that day; there was no escape from the floors above the impact. As the author grimly reminds us, many on the doomed upper floors jumped, preferring that to incineration.
Stories of creation and destruction told in an informed and compassionate voice.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3799-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sometimes a memoir writer makes the unfortunate decision to turn a potentially good 20-page article into a work many times that length. Goran's book is Exhibit A. Goran, a novelist (Mrs. Beautiful, not reviewed, etc.) and English professor at the University of Miami, co-led a weekly creative writing course there with Isaac Bashevis Singer for a decade (197888) while also helping translate and edit some of Singer's stories. His portrait of their friendship consists largely of seemingly verbatim transcripts of conversations; how they were remembered or recorded is never explained. Occasionally puckish or otherwise witty, these exchanges far too often consist of forgettable banter. Goran works diligently to capture an intense, decade-long friendship, and offers an occasional piquant observation (e.g., a reference to Singer's ``giddy savage world''). But for a teacher of writing, he also delivers himself of some peculiar, portentous prose (e.g., ``He remains for me the spokesman of our dilemma of unbelonging'') and cites some dubious second- and third-hand reports of ``acts'' and ``quotes'' (he quotes Singer as having remarked that Elie Wiesel, a fellow Jewish-European-American Nobel laureate, allegedly complained to a friend in Paris that ``Isaac Singer is the worst enemy of the Jews after Hitler''; Goran apparently made no effort to verify these words). At times, he does step back from their conversations to portray more vividly the very sad, even pitiable, man Singer had become at the end of his life: often lonely, misanthropic, melancholy, self-centered, and emotionally withholding. In his last few years (the octogenarian Singer died in 1991) his tendency towards absentmindedness and fearfulness became considerably more pronounced. But this memoir is sad too for what it reveals about the author, who seems largely unable to winnow out much of substance from a great deal of oral fluff.
Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-87338-506-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Neither a strong, coherent spiritual guide nor a work of wisdom.
A spiritual guide for members of the New Church, a denomination whose teachings are from the book of Revelations.
“…If you stay with me, I will lead you into many truths, in which you never thought to be possible,” Emmanuel writes, and many “truths” are indeed revealed in this wordy volume. According to the author, man is a little world, and living within him are spirits and angels. Man has no thoughts of his own, and each individual is a little heaven and a little hell. The closer man draws to the Lord, the more he receives from the Lord. The book proceeds thusly, in a stream-of-conscious format with no paragraph breaks or organizing principle, aside from chapter headings. It’s as if James Joyce decided to confront spiritual issues while abandoning his strong imagery and innovative language. In general, the author seems to strive toward a pure connection with God without the filter of a self to interpret it. However, this results in a lack of an authoritative voice. Emmanuel takes on a variety of issues simultaneously without unpacking them to unleash their wisdom. It’s not that he makes false claims or that the cited scripture is inaccurate, but the many rhetorical questions that he attempts to answer are contradictory and render the spiritual questions meaningless. A beginning summary states that this book was written for members of the New Church, which, in the book of Revelations, is the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from the Lord. “The words are meant only for those who are seeking truths of the Kingdom of Heaven. If you are not seeking these truths…these words will make little sense to you,” Emmanuel writes. The words do sometimes make sense but the lack of organization makes it impossible for them to serve as a guide to God’s wisdom.
Neither a strong, coherent spiritual guide nor a work of wisdom.Pub Date: May 23, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4257-5563-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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