[.ca] Portraits 9/11/01: The Collected Portraits of Grief From ... (ISBN 0805073604)

Journalistic Efficiency Triumphs Over Substance:
I dearly wish that the portrait of my father, Simon V. Weiser, were more accurate. To latch onto an insignificant fact and make it the centerpiece and title of the portrait perhaps made the reporter's job easier, but did not do justice to my father's life.

We Will Never Forget!!:
A sad and inspiring journey through that fateful day.

The Human Side of 9/11/01:
Everyone remembers the terrible events that took place on September 11, 2001. We have all viewed the images on television and in print, showing the airplanes striking the buildings, the fire, and the collapse of the World Trade Center. We have seen firefighters and rescue dogs searching for bodies trapped in the rubble. And we have seen politicians talking about the attacks and what must be done to prevent such an event in the future. But one thing that we don't see very frequently is information on the human victims themselves. That is, until now. In this book, the New York Times has taken on a great task: Assembling together a full volume showing pictures and personal information on each of the victims who died during the attack on September 11, 2001. The Times originally started to do this in the actual newspaper itself, highlighting the different victims with a section called "Portraits of Grief". It was from these portraits that the book was derived from. Most (but not all) of the victims are pictured in the pages of this book, with a small, black and white photo of the person's face, followed by a brief summary of the person's life, career, family, etc. The portrait information isn't extensive, but it manages to let you, the reader, know at least a little bit about each of the victims, complete with quotations from family members expressing how their lost husband/wife/child, etc. touched their lives in a positive way. Besides the photos of people, there are other pictures in this book, with most of them dedicated to the funerals, remembrance gatherings, and other grief- related events. You won't find pictures of the smoking buildings in this book. It centers instead on the people. Overall, this book is a nice effort on the part of the people at the New York Times. Approx. 143 people took part in the creation of this book, and their names are all listed in the back. It was a commendable effort and while I would have liked the book better if the pictures had been in color, I still think this is a book worth owning. My copy sits on my coffee table right now, reminding me of all the human tragedies that took place on the fateful day of September 11, 2001.

Is it allowable to write a negative opinion of this book?:
I've written negative reviews of this book before. Once they posted it, and then deleted it. Have we come to the point in this country that on certain subjects only one opinion is allowed? Perhaps so. I thought that the idea of focusing an entire book on portraits of the people who died in the World Trade Center was shamefully being used to promote the Bush administration's war on the people of the world. Not surprising, either, coming from the establishment's official newspaper, the right wing New York Times. Why don't they print daily photos and profiles of the 5,000 Iraqi children a month who died year after year from the U.S. economic sanctions or the many thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died from the U.S. invasion and occupation? This review probably won't be posted either, cause there is no real freedom of speech here in the U.S. unless you follow the rigidly enforced conformist views of the Republican and Democratic party. My grandparents died in Hitler's concentration camps, and as far as I can see, with the brutal repression of Arab and Muslim people here in the U.S., the rounding up and detaining of people without charges, trials, or access to lawyers, and the numerous (past, present, and impending future) invasions of countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, etc. the U.S. is becoming the new Nazi Germany of the 21st century in my opinion. We need to speak up, it can't happen again. A book like this one is a propaganda tool of the powers that be to justify their policies of war, aggression, racism, and repression. It is a shameful use of the lost lives of the people who died in this incident. And many have questioned the story of what really happened there, and believe that the World Trade Center was really Bush's Reichstag Fire. A best selling book in France told that story, but was largely suppressed here in the U.S. This glossy book with its photos and biographies is a travesty. Shame!

Book Buying:
The book is well presented and very thorough. The trouble is I got immediately taken by all the 5 star reviews and I didnt realize that the format,was a profile of lives of those people before they that died. It wasnt what I was looking for. Of course that is in no way intended to hurt any one who reads this text. This is simply a lesson in book buying. Read and understand what you are buying. Its a simple lesson.