The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 – Garrett M. Graff
On September 11, 2001, I was a college student who was awoken by a fraternity brother running down the hallway screaming, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center, holy shit!"
Then, like millions of others, I watched the events of September 11 unfold in real time.
My memories of what followed are not cohesive anymore, but a few things still stick out: how beautiful the day was; the professor that cancelled class but the one that refused to; the fear in hearing a passenger plane fly overhead; waiting at a payphone to call my parents because cell reception was jammed; concern that I would soon be drafted into a war.
Regardless of where you are in the world, you likely have a 9/11 memory. And, collecting those memories for future generations was the intent of Garrett M. Graff. I don't think "Plane" is a book anyone wants to read, but it is a must read.
Through the different stories — of survivors, politicians, journalists, first responders and Americans both around impacted areas and those not — there is a humanity brought to the day that we’ve lost with time.
I shouldn’t have needed this book to remind me that there were nearly 3,000 people that died that day and countless others that have carried the pain of surviving ever since. But I did.
The stories are raw, painful and incredibly difficult. Only a few have happy endings. I had to pause the book several times to collect my thoughts. I cried frequently. That’s a testament to how Graff structured the book, its phenomenal narration, and the fact that it is an oral history.
These 500 stories brought the day back vividly — and it becomes a full sensory experience. You simply cannot write fiction as gripping or powerful as hearing a person talking about the last time they saw or spoke to a loved one. The quiet resolve in a person’s last words. The long-term questioning of how you survived by going left when everyone else went right. While painful, it’s the human toll of this tragedy that needs to be preserved.
Because of the scope of the day’s events, there hasn’t been a cohesive narrative as to what happened in each location, which has made it easy to overlook the tragedies at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. Giving these people equal page time is another thing that makes “Plane” so powerful.
You’re on the hijacked planes, in the Twin Towers, responding to calls for help, riding on Air Force One, responding in a field in Shanksville, trying to escape Manhattan by boat, searching for news of loved ones — it’s all here.
At 19-years-old, I couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of the event from some combination of ignorance, innocence, and machismo. It wasn’t until five years later, when I watched “United 93,” that I began to fully grasp what happened.
Even in the years since, the retrospectives have shifted from the events of the day to the wars and political fallout that have happened since. While some of that is referenced here, Graff never veers too far into the geo-political territory. For those interested, in the author’s note he does share a few titles that cover that subject.
I’d recommend listening to this as an audiobook, but I’ve already a purchased a physical copy for my home library. Narrated by a cast of 45 people, a few read their own stories, but the majority are narrated by an assortment of voice professionals.
Even though you know you’re not listening to well-known figures — like Katie Couric, Laura Bush and Rudy Giuliani, who all have memories shared — each person that narrates does so with respect and somber clarity.
While still capturing only a fraction of the stories from 9/11, “Plane” is a powerful way to never forget the day, the lives lost and the aftermath it created.
Rating (story): 5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 5/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: September 7 - 13, 2021
Multi-tasking: Fine, but this is probably better listened to in private given the emotion it will elicit.
