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    102 Minutes
    102 Minutes
    102 Minutes
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    102 Minutes

    Written by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn

    Narrated by Ron McClarty

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The dramatic and moving account of the struggle for life inside the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, when every minute counted.

    At 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers -- reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World. Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the people who lived it -- until now.

    New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn rely on hundreds of interviews; thousands of pages of oral histories; and phone, e-mail, and emergency radio transcripts. They cross a bridge of voices to go inside the infernos, seeing cataclysm and heroism, one person at a time, to tell the affecting, authoritative saga of the men and women -- the 12,000 who escaped and the 2,749 who perished -- who made 102 minutes count as never before.

    Read by Ron McLarty

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 18, 2005
    ISBN9780060834685
    102 Minutes
    Author

    Jim Dwyer

    Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, native New Yorkers, veteran newspaper reporters, and winners of many awards together and separately, now work at The New York Times. Dwyer is the coauthor or author of three other books. Flynn, a special projects editor at the Times, was the newspaper's police bureau chief on September 11. He previously worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, New York Newsday, and the Stamford Advocate.

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    Reviews for 102 Minutes

    4/5

    403 ratings34 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      102 Minutes from the time the first plane struck the first tower and the second tower collapsed. 102 Minutes ...The events of 911 was almost too much for the mind to comprehend - even now I find it so hard to believe that this actually happened. Dwyer & Flynn, New York Times reporters have invested a great deal of time researching the events of that morning and reconstructing all the bits and pieces into this heart-wrenching, but absolutely essential read. Gritty, honest and unflinching, Dwyer and Flynn tackled this with the fervor, conviction and passion necessary to bring this novel to the public. Some 12000+ were able to safely escape the inferno that erupted in the WTC, the facts, presented make it abundantly clear that many more "should have" been able to escape...but instead were trapped and therefore sentenced to death on a crystal clear September morning. Many were told to "wait" for help to arrive, others were redirected back up the stairs by folks coming up saying it was impassable - when in fact there was a stairwell, intact and relatively clean, clear and smoke free, and the roof had been locked after the 93 bombing, but the employees did not know that.As we watched that morning, in sheer horror, I couldn't help but wonder what these people must be feeling or thinking. I had to avert my eyes when people began to make their own final choice, rather than allow the terrorist to decide -- This book is not easy to read - but everyone should read it. I have read many books covering the 911 attacks and each is heart breaking, maddening and filled with strong, palpable emotion - 102 Minutes presents eye opening information, from the special exemptions given to the WTC for less stairways/elevators thus allowing for more office space - the result, of course, more revenue. Also, the continued communication problems with the WTC complex for the NYPD & NYFD --these had been glaringly revealed during the 93 attack, yet had not be rectified. We met the worst of humanity with the best of America - the good, the bad, the sad and the maddening - it's all here in 102 Minutes, be prepared to feel strong emotions while reading this exceptionally well written novel -
    • 5/5
      Very impacting account of the escape and rescue efforts of 9/11. Helped restore my faith in humanity.
    • 5/5
      Moving and well-written, with just the right amount of personal detail from the individual stories. The reader captured the accents of New Yorkers, too.
    • 5/5
      Great account of this true story and the narrator was amazing! Done in a blow-by-blow style and did not feel like a documentary, but more like a bunch of individual accounts woven together seamlessly. Amazing job by the author and the narrator. ~JTC~
    • 4/5
      Great book. Very well researched and written. This edition had a new afterword written in 2006 and was brutally honest about the deficiencies that contributed to the amount of lives lost, due to lack of communication or lack of proper structural things that may have prevented the collapse and enabled more to survive.
    • 5/5
      A well-written, detailed account of the time period between the airplanes striking the Towers and the horrific collapse. It is an emotional read that made you feel for the victims and the families who searched for them.
    • 5/5
      A must read - gut wrenching, powerful and heartbreaking.
    • 5/5
      This book tells the stories of the people who were inside the towers on 9-11. It's a raw record of the day and what people saw, did and experienced.

      Certain details in this book have lingered over the years. For example some firefighters actually reached the fire that was raging on the upper stories. One elevator remained operational in the south tower after the second plane crashed into it; and that elevator took a few firefighters up to the 40th floor. Battalion Chief Orio J. Palmer climbed another 38 floors to the impact zone, arriving at the lobby on the 78th floor by 9:51 a.m. Their tower collapsed eight minute later.

      A large crowd of firefighters, some of them suffering from chest pains and the like under loads of 60 pounds or more, were still resting on the 19th floor of the north tower as the last of the interviewed survivors came down.

      While reading "102 Minutes," I recalled two books especially: John Hersey's "Hiroshima," which reconstructs that bombing from interviews with six survivors; and Walter Lord's "A Night To Remember," the definitive account of Titanic's sinking. There are many more similarities with Lord's account -- particularly the attempt, by a non-participant, to keep an eye on hundreds of personal stories.
    • 4/5
      8:46 am, 9/11/01. That is when the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. People were inside either getting ready to start their workday, working their workday, meeting, etc. Little was understood by those inside exactly what had happened. Their only thoughts were to try to get out of where they were and get out of the building.There were also people in the South Tower who had no idea about what had happened just a short distance away. 9:03 am, 9/11/01. A second plane hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center. More people unaware from their offices of what had occurred. This book gives names and instances to something that appeared to be a tragic movie, although it was not a movie. We come to know some of the people who survived and others who didn't. Let us never forget all that were lost in this tragedy. Government, businesses, fire, police, etc all need to recall the devastation of this tragedy and work to remedy the issues that were faced in trying to save people on that day.
    • 5/5
      I read this in commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11. This book was absolutely gut wrenching. It fact it was so emotionally draining that I had to put it down at times to take a breath and remind myself that I was not trapped in a smokey tower, almost two thousand feet off the ground with no means of escape. As I read it felt like I was traveling through the towers as I spent the last moments of people lives with them. What I take away from this book was no matter how evil the terrorists were and how destructive their act, it was overcome with pure goodness in thousands of ways and by thousands of people. Frank DiMartini and his group were directly responsible for saving 70 people before ultimately losing his life. He could have left the tower with his wife but he kept going up to the impact zone in order to save whoever he could. Abe Zelmanowitz wouldn't leave his paraplegic friend Ed Beyea even though he could have evacuated and saved his own life. Orio Palmer, a firefighter who arrived at the South Tower, fixed an elevator to take him to the 41st floor sky lobby and from there ran up 37 flights of stairs to go into the impact zone. Once there he gave comfort to survivors and directed them to escape routes. Countless first responders who stayed with people they were helping to evacuate even when the news finally came that the towers were in danger of falling. An act of evil on a terrible day overcome with heroism and love, that is what I take away from 9/11.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Great story! I cried several times throughout the book, it was just so emotionally uneasy at times. It's definitely a painful but thorough look into one of the nations greatest catastrophes.
    • 4/5
      A powerful story pieced together from interviews, recordings and historical texts. Mr. Dwyer and Mr. Flynn are meticulous storytellers who made me feel like I was there. So much to the point that I had to finish the book in one sitting as it was so terrifying and anxiety inducing for me.
    • 4/5
      It was such a tragic event. The book explains to you what happened, gives you details that not even the news were able to explain. It is a great a book. A book every kid who was not able to experience such day should read.
    • 3/5
      Lots of details, got a little bored with the minute description of the building structure.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book. 102 Minutes gives a face to some of those who lost their lives on 9-11 and those who survived to tell their tale.102 minutes is exactly that. A 102 minutes insider view of what happened in the towers on September 11th, from the moment the first plane hit to the moment the North tower collapsed. Using witness accounts, 911 calls that were made and e-mails sent they were able to recount the stories of some of those who were in the Trade Centers on that faithful September morning.For those of us who watched the towers fall on TV in various locations across the world. The shock was brutal, however the quickness in which the events happened left us with little time to think about what was really going on inside those tower walls.This book paints a different story than what we saw on TV that morning, one we've never heard before, yet one that needs to be heard... because those who died that morning definitely need to be remembered, not as a simple picture stuck on a wall amongst thousands but as individuals who like you & I had families and friends.
    • 4/5
      Not sure if its right to enjoy reading books about 9/11 ? The courage and determination of all involved is merciless and this book recounts the part played by many. A great read
    • 5/5
      Read this book in one day. Very sad. I was screaming inside, "Get out of that building Now"!
    • 4/5
      Well written with great detail and successfully presents the case that the story of Sept. 11th goes back decades to the planning and designing of the World Trade Center and the festering relationships between the police, fire, and port authority departments, and the local government.I thought the authors could have spaced the stories about the construction of the Towers more. I also thought it was strange how each chapter began with a specific time, e.g. 9:30 am, but sometimes within that chapter, the action would have progressed significantly further down the timeline. There was also quite a bit of repetition as if the authors were trying too hard to hammer their point home.
    • 5/5
      Remarkable account of what is was like inside that day.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating, raw, and frightening account of the horror, heroism, and confusion inside the Twin Towers on 9/11/01. The authors did an amazing job interviewing thousands of people and putting together piece by piece, down to the minute, of what happened inside the towers.
    • 5/5
      Outstanding. There's no other word for this book.
    • 5/5
      This is an impressive, meticulously researched, detailed account of what went on inside the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the 102 minutes between the first airplane strike at 8:46:31 a.m. and the collapse of the North Tower, the second of the two towers to fall, at 10:28:25 a.m. According to the Authors' Note, ". . . accounts are drawn from 200 interviews with survivors and witnesses, thousands of pages of untranscribed radio transmissions, phone messages, e-mails, and oral histories. All sources are named and enumerated." (Indeed, the book includes extensive end-notes.) At the front of the book, they list 365 people who were in the building the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 -- people whose actions they were able to trace to some degree. At the end, they list 130 of that 365 who did not survive. Of course, there were thousands more people in those buildings that day, over 2,700 of whom did not survive, but it would be impossible to research the actions of every soul who was there that day.The book moves through the disasterous morning starting with a Prologue time-stamped 8:30 a.m. which gives the reader a sense of who some of the people are who were there at the time the first plane hit. It continues tracking the fates of these people and others in the Towers whose locations and actions could be verified through records and survivors' accounts. The stories are tragic, heroic, gritty. It's amazing to think that people around the country watching TV knew more about what was happening, as far as the "big picture," than those in the Towers -- many of whom did not know that the chaos in which they found themselves had been caused by airplance strikes upon the building.The authors don't confine themselves to the events of the morning, but also examine choices made during the planning and design of the buildings which affected people's ability to survive and escape. Here they tend to get a bit repetitive: the 1968 NYC building code, under which the Twin Towers were built, made changes that adversely impacted safety. I personally think it's not realistic to think that any building could be built to stand up to the kind of attack that occurred that day without significant loss of life. However, features of the "old" code would almost certainly have saved at least some of the lives that were lost, and they explain why at every opportunity. The book also looks at the state of disaster response in NYC. While nobody in their right mind would question the heroism of the first responders who went into the buildings that day (and these authors appear to be in their right minds!), it is obvious that poor communication probably contributed to the body count that day. They delve into the reasons for this. They also chronicle the often gracious and sometimes heroic actions of everyday civilians as they helped one another try to survivie.There are times when the book is a bit confusing, and I had to go back a page occasionally and establish in my mind what area of which tower certain events were occurring in. This is not so much a fault of the book as it is a simple matter of the complexity of the events of that fateful day. If it is difficult to take in after years of analysis, one can hardly imagine the confusion being experienced by those there as the events unfolded. Diagrams are included in the book which are helpful to the reader in understanding the unfolding of events.This is a good book about an extremely difficult subject, and a very moving portrayal many of the lives caught up in that terrible disaster.
    • 4/5
      Dwyer has taken first-hand reports from survivors of 9/11 in New York to build this narrative account minute by minute. I learned a lot and it is probably the most popular book on the events of September 11th. Dwyer lets the facts speak for themselves, without interjection, which can be effective, or leave one feeling a bit removed. He doesn't dwell on dead bodies or injuries or the horror of jumping or people freaking out. He is a journalist reporting from the front lines and we get a respectful, immediate factual report - like in later accounts of the Titanic, heroes and acts of uprightness abound - men helping women and the disabled, people going beyond the "call of duty", fortitude and stoicism. The number of names is impossible to keep track of but it doesn't matter. We learn more firefighters died than were necessary because of a lack of communications equipment and infighting with the NY Police Department. We learn that most people in the North Tower were unaware the South Tower had fallen, or that the North Tower was even conceivably going to fall. That the towers were poorly designed for safety due to a roll-back of safety laws in the 1960s. That the Police Chief ordered the circling police helicopters to ensure no more planes hit the tower - how this could be done is never explained, but only one option seemed possible - collision.
    • 3/5
      A heart breaking book that documents through interviews, transcripts, 911 calls and voice mails what the struggle to survive was like inside the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. Contains documented explanations for why what was thought to be impossible took place. An emotional read.
    • 4/5
      An emotional, intense account of the 102 minutes from the impact of the first plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center until the collapse of the two towers. It is a tale of escape and the will to live, of leaders who roused people and found or made exits and people who were told to wait for rescue and obediently waited in vain. It is a story of those who couldn't walk past a voice calling for help and of those who picked up and hurtled themselves down the stairs and never looked back. It is a story of heartbreak as we read of the final messages given over the phones, of people incredulously facing the final moments of life. In each case, as it is presented we ask, "What would I have done?" A very sober, well-researched account of the horror that came to be known as 9-11.
    • 5/5
      Heartbreaking and well-written. This book covers many details that were not in the earliest books that were rushed to press to cover 9/11.
    • 5/5
      Dwyer & Flynn have gone to recreate the last 102 minutes of the World Trade Center the time from the first plane crashing to the collapse of the second tower. We see a picture from inside the towers from both survivors and those who died. We learn that some rescue workers did make it to the crash zone. Decisions of life and death and a total failure of communication between police and firefighters made the death toll higher than it should have been.
    • 4/5
      Loved this book. A truly insightful perspective on this horrific tragedy. You feel the heartache and relief of those people.
    • 1/5
      nothing new. we read it all in the newspapers. too much detail. perhaps a good read for the next generation of readers who didn't live through 9/11.
    • 5/5
      102 Minutes from the time the first plane struck the first tower and the second tower collapsed. 102 Minutes ...The events of 911 was almost too much for the mind to comprehend - even now I find it so hard to believe that this actually happened. Dwyer & Flynn, New York Times reporters have invested a great deal of time researching the events of that morning and reconstructing all the bits and pieces into this heart-wrenching, but absolutely essential read. Gritty, honest and unflinching, Dwyer and Flynn tackled this with the fervor, conviction and passion necessary to bring this novel to the public. Some 12000+ were able to safely escape the inferno that erupted in the WTC, the facts, presented make it abundantly clear that many more "should have" been able to escape...but instead were trapped and therefore sentenced to death on a crystal clear September morning. Many were told to "wait" for help to arrive, others were redirected back up the stairs by folks coming up saying it was impassable - when in fact there was a stairwell, intact and relatively clean, clear and smoke free, and the roof had been locked after the 93 bombing, but the employees did not know that.As we watched that morning, in sheer horror, I couldn't help but wonder what these people must be feeling or thinking. I had to avert my eyes when people began to make their own final choice, rather than allow the terrorist to decide -- This book is not easy to read - but everyone should read it. I have read many books covering the 911 attacks and each is heart breaking, maddening and filled with strong, palpable emotion - 102 Minutes presents eye opening information, from the special exemptions given to the WTC for less stairways/elevators thus allowing for more office space - the result, of course, more revenue. Also, the continued communication problems with the WTC complex for the NYPD & NYFD --these had been glaringly revealed during the 93 attack, yet had not be rectified. We met the worst of humanity with the best of America - the good, the bad, the sad and the maddening - it's all here in 102 Minutes, be prepared to feel strong emotions while reading this exceptionally well written novel -