The 11th, 11 years later.
It's both amazing and horrifying that the September 11th attacks from 11 years ago still resound so strongly with many of us today.
In many ways, it became the reference point for a lot of questions, fears, and discussion we share about security. There have been numerous defining moments in history: depending on your age and cultural context, you may vividly remember where you were when JFK was assassinated, or your reaction when the Challenger spacecraft exploded.
I was sitting in my biology class when the first tower was hit on 9/11. My teacher had hurriedly dragged in an old TV and we all sat in stunned silence, our eyes glued to the scenes before us.
It was a surreal experience – and I couldn't even begin to imagine the impact it would make on the entire world for years to come.
There's been a lot of fiction that's come out since the attacks in 2001. Here are a few to check out about relationships entangled in the events of that day.
3 thoughts on “The 11th, 11 years later.”
Another novel inspired by the events of September 11th is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, winner of the 2009 National Book Award.
For teens, I also quite like Eric Walters’ books We All Fall Down and United We Stand. They are not great works of literature, and he has kind of become the go-to author for disasters, but still, they are quite a good representation of the day, insofar as they are fiction and imagined stories of what it was to be there.
I think they in many ways capture the mood of the day in the first book and the stunned aftermath of the day after, when we were all reeling and trying to feel our way through the shock and find a way to help.
Thanks for the great additions, Sheila and Alice —
I haven’t read McCann’s book, but the reviews sound great so I have to add it to my list of books to read.
I agree that Eric Walters is always a great go-to for younger readers and he does have a knack for really describing a mood, especially one as somber and sobering as the one surrounding the 9/11 attacks.