Walking Forward, Looking Back: Lessons from the World Trade Center: A Survivor's Story

I've read many Sept 11 books over the years, especially the photo essays, and I must admit John Labriola's book is the most haunting. The one picture that gives me chills is the photo of Firefighter Mike Kehoe climbing up the stairs - the rest of the firefighter photos are blurred, and give a sense of ambiguity of their identity... not with Mr. Kehoe's photo. I've read on how that photo has changed Mr. Kehoe's life (and not all for the better) and this post certainly doesn't do much to dispell it... but the look in his eyes, and determined facial expression, and our knowledge of what is/was coming immediately afterwards... Mr. Labriola had the fortune(?) of being at the right place at the right time to capture these photographs. His natural talent as a photographer is evident in his decision to take photos of *everything* during his day (the morning market sale, his car in a reflection, the Tower photos). Final note - I had heard Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" hundreds of times after Sept 11. Reading books such as "Profiles in Grief" from the NY times with photos of the victims, and books relating to the firefighters lost didn't allow my mind to fuse the song's lyrics with the tragedy... until I saw Mike Kehoe's eyes coming up the stairwell. While Mr. Kehoe has not become a 9/11 "poster child" in my eyes, I can imagine the same dedication and steely-eyed expression on any of the 343 firefighers lost in the Twin Towers collapse. This book is a must have for any worthy September 11 2001 book collection. My local library has 3 books on the tragedy - lucky one of those books was this one. Ignore the conspiracy theory books - get this one.

This book has stories of surviviors and details of the day not typically found elsewhere. I was able to see pictures and get perspectives, particurly of the Greek Orthodox church, that I had not found anywhere else in all of my 9/11 library.