102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers

We saw what was happening on the news, but this book gives a detailed account of what was happening to various people inside: how they survived, what was their last phone call, alarm and communication systems inside.

This book was amazing and hard to put down. I was only 12 when this disaster happened and I only watched it unfold on TV. I just don't know why the book never mentioned the people on the planes. I'd like to read a book about that too

Everyone is familiar with the pictures of the World Trade Center from 11 September 2001. The views from the outside as the planes strike the towers, and then the collapse of one and then the other, with dust and chaos everywhere, possess a grim fascination that even repeated viewings do not dim. But what was going on inside? There were thousands of people already at work in the buildings in that morning. Many had gone through the attack on the basement of the towers eight years before (and sadly may have had false confidence in the buildings' structural integrity because of that first attack). We can imagine what some of them must have gone through, but how can we know? While many of those in the towers that day will never be able to tell their stories, even some of those who perished were able to get through on computers, radios, and cell phones. The interactions of firemen, policemen, and heroic victims did leave electronically recorded trails and memories that can be examined. Two reporters, Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, have undertaken to reveal the hidden, human aspects of the disaster in _102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers_ (Times Books). Everyone knows how it all turned out, but this is a superbly suspenseful account, mostly of ordinary humans confronting an extraordinary disaster, combined with an analysis of sad error and inefficiency. It could have been worse, certainly, but it could have gone far better. The fate of the buildings is repeatedly tied to their initial design; the authors explain that the most important actions taken in a skyscraper disaster are those that were laid out in the blueprints. Because engineering of the time was thought to be so much better than in previous skyscrapers, the rules about stairways had been relaxed; there were fewer of them, and they were clustered within the building so that if one got physically damaged, the others were close enough to suffer the same damage. The authors never confuse the real cause of the disaster, the suicidal hijackers and their masters, with mistakes that led to a worsening of the disaster, but for many of the dead, they write, "Their fate was sealed nearly four decades earlier," when the buildings were designed to give maximum rental space often at the cost of safety space. The stories of the individuals who worked in the towers, or happened to be visiting that day, are uppermost throughout the book, however. After the north tower was hit, those in the south tower were rightly concerned that they were at risk, but were reassured that the building was secure. Stanley Praimnath, for instance, went back up to his job at a Japanese bank on the 81st floor of the south tower once a guard told him the building was secure and under no danger. He was on the phone, assuring a colleague in Chicago that he was fine, when he looked out to see an airplane headed toward his window. The caller in Chicago watched the TV in horror, as

As a survivor of that day, I was on the 98th floor of Tower 2 this book says it all. This is a gripping, well told, accurate account of the horror of many many lives. The authors put into words what so many of us could not for those frightening and unbelievable 102 minutes. A must read for all Americans.

The New York Times has lead the effort to document the history and cost of the events of September 11, 2001. Their staff have written the "first draft of history" with "Out Of The Blue" (the background of the plot with an emphasize on the Twin Towers) and "Among The Heroes" (the story of the passengers of Flight 93 which fought their hijackers). Now two more NYT writers have added "102 Minutes", an account of those caught up in the Twin Towers on 9-11. These are simple stories, based on countless interviews and transcripts of phones calls, of those who escaped and those who died that day. The writing is clear, the tales are powerful, the vignettes of survival/heroism inspiring. However, this in not a book to be read in one sitting, for the horror of so many deaths can be overwhelming for the reader. But the dead are honored and remembered in "102 Minutes." It is a book worth reading.

This is a vividly rendered book, not remotely exploitative and yet so unflinching in the reportage that it demands your attention and ultimately earns your heart. Authors Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, both from the New York Times, make this inevitably moving book suspenseful, almost surreal and ultimately a reflection of the human condition under the most dire of circumstances. As comprehensive as the revelatory "9/11 Commission Report" is, the stories in this book represent the missing perspective of that horrifying day, the voices of those who survived and perished in the World Trade Center. What the authors are effective in capturing is how endless those 102 minutes seemed to the people inside the buildings, how the period between the first crash and the collapse of the north tower was so chaotic that the full scope of what happened was unknown to those trapped inside. Because we were able to watch the news coverage relentlessly that morning, the book clarifies that what was happening was far clearer from the outside than from the inside. Those inside had no way of knowing what happened to them or why, and certainly no way to know if they would live or die. There are stories of personal ingenuity and heroism, like the window washer who used his squeegee to scrape away a wall and manually bored himself and five others through a tiled wall in the 50th floor men's room. There are stories of paralyzing fear, such as the series of 911 calls from the various floors when the south tower started to collapse. And sadly there are stories that will be disappointing for the very acts of desperation they represent, such as people being pushed out of windows so that others could position themselves for fresh air and possible rescue. I doubt if there is a more harrowing story than the one about Stanley Praimnath, who was evacuated from the 81st floor of the south tower only to be told to return to his office and see the United jet come speeding toward him in the office window. These are the moments none of us can forget, and Dwyer and Flynn capture them with all their humanity intact. Essential reading.

The journalists Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have captured 102 of the most terrifying minutes any group of people have ever faced. The authors focus tightly and breathtakingly on the events in and directly around the towers from the moment of the first plane's impact until the last tower comes down. There is nothing but that story and it is told with great skill from a great many viewpoints, both from workers inside the tower and from rescuers entering the towers. They combine their account effectively with just enough information for the reader to get a little background into the personalities involved and the various elements that structurally in the towers themselves whiced added to or relieved the crisis. This book's strong focus on the fight for survival within the towers makes it an invaluable resource and a testement to what happened that day.