110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11

In the flood of publications about 9/11, there is not much that will not be covered by television specials. And of those topics, many will be too painful to revisit again after 9/11 -- for the survivors and families of victims, of course, the pain will not go away even if we try to move on. 110 Stories: New York Writes After September stands out from the many books for several reasons. It offers the voices of extremely sensitive, articulate and exciting New York-based authors to give expression to the terrible events of that day, to render the experience more humanly accessible, and to allow us to approach that day in ways that will not numb our senses. In fact, literature here serves as a way to make the process of mourning and remembrance possible. I applaud the writers in this collection for taking the risks necessary to produce powerful writing. The poem by Edwidge Danticat made me cry, and the short story by Carolyn Ferrell about one of the many victims in the tower allowed me a glimpse into a lost life without ever turning maudlin or exploitative. Others might like to hear how Darren Aronofsky (one of our best film directors: check out Requiem for a Dream!) remembers the World Trade Center, or how playwright Richard Foreman tackles an event that defies the imagination. If you care about New York and if you want to read how literature can testify to the horrors of 9/11 without sensationalizing them, 110 Stories is an amazing choice.

i was moved by this book. the works it contains range from poignant (i particularly loved carol gilligan's piece) to experimental to trashy (ok, i hated ames' piece), a perfect swipe of New York City talent/sensibility caught at a life changing moment. as a painter, i have a commitment to truth by indirection and that is the glory of mr. baer's concept. i treasure both the gravity and the diversity of these writers'reflections on loss and life, on their light hearted tangents and fantastic inventions; words, in de lillo's phrase, to fill the howling void. i have never much liked the short story form but this collection accumulates emotionally with surprising depth and insight. we won't know the real meaning of 110 Stories until time has passed and perspective is gained but at the moment, i applaud it as a paean to the art of writing and to the city of new york.

110 Stories,edited by Ulrich Baer, is a remarkable manyvoiced volume. The deeply personal responses to a collective disaster reach beyond the local horror toward the larger themes of loss, grief, and trauma in salvaging the fateful moments in the lives of creative individuals. Eschewing cliches and posturizing - "we dare to talk, but we should be careful with our words" - this collection attests to New York's boundless diversity and vitality.

As a reader from Berlin, Germany, I find "110 stories" an interesting approach to understanding what the events of 9/11 meant to the people of New York. Having read many articles by correspondents, journalists, political analysts, who have mostly flown into the city to cover the story, hearing the voices of people who talk about their own lives in their home city offers an insight I did not have before.I am surprised that one reader from New York finds it disturbing to find so many different views in the collection; some of the criticism expressed in his review point to things which make the book special and valuable to me:For instance, pieces which were written before Sept 11, and are included in "110 stories", are a very important part of remembering. How can we remember what we have lost if we forget what it was like before? Who would not remember his or her visits to the "Windows of the World", or the photograph of the towers one took on a first visit to New York, when trying to understand what happened on 9/11?And, writers, or poets, do not have to limit their work to what might be suitable for a newspaper report. What they write in order to express what they see, hear, and feel, thinking about the tragedy of the twin towers, has to be different from what I expect to hear on "60 minutes" or read in "Newsweek". The good thing about "110 stories" is that it features such a wide range of views, of literary techniques, of backgrounds and opinions. Nobody will agree with, or love, every single of the pieces included in the collection, as nobody will grasp the whole meaning of what happened one year ago in New York. New York, to a reader from Europe, is an international, a multi-faceted city, with millions of different people and ideas and views. I expect from a book entitled "New York writes after Sept 11" precisely the diversity of form and perspective that the book delivers.

110 StoriesReading this collection of stories by NYC writers, some a direct response to the tragedy of 9/11, most an engagement with the deep and recurring issues of loss, of family, of love that are raised by events of this magnitude, is a powerful , sometimes heartbreaking, sometime exhilarating experience. The range of responses is wide; the profound, the graceful are juxtaposed with the outrageous. Some of the most moving pieces achieve their poignancy by indirection. Rinde Ekhart's contribution's, a poem in which the narrator says " I was never the man I used to be" and elsewherere, speaking of a drowning man, " We are all in over our heads" stands out. Particularly insightful is the Introductory essay by Ulrich Baer, the Editor, who speaks movingly and convincingly of "the need for narrative in the wake of a disaster". This collection of voices, characteristically New York in its diversity, constitutes a community of narrative in response to tragedy...."we're still here...we're still writing about what matters ". Assembled in this beautiful book, their voices matter to us , too.