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A review by travellingcari
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
5.0
Mind. Blown.
I have had this on Mt. TBR for way too long but finally sat my butt down to read it once they announced the upcoming Broadway show. While I have doubts about how this will translate to stage, I fell in love with the book.
Everyone knows the basics of how/why the world came to Gander but while Gander became synonymous with 9/11, I don't know how many people realized it was the entirety of New Foundland that stopped their lives to help the "plane people". And that's what grabbed me. From the Chairman of Hugo Boss to parents of Kevin O'Rourke, FDNY killed in the Towers to, to an Orthodox Rabbi who later met the only Jew in New Foundland to Barbara Fast, an Army Brigadier General based in Stuttgart...
Each of these people were met & welcomed by the everyday people of Gander, Lewisporte, Gambo, Appleton and many other towns in New Foundland who became chauffeurs, cooks, hotel operators and every other need you could think of for those stranded in the five - six days after 9/11 with US airspace closed. This book, which reads like a novel, showed the good hearts of the Newfies and how both hosts and guests' lives were changed not just by the attacks on the US, but by the good people they met.
Also "understand New Foundland" may be the best mnemonic for remembering how to pronounce the island's name.
I have had this on Mt. TBR for way too long but finally sat my butt down to read it once they announced the upcoming Broadway show. While I have doubts about how this will translate to stage, I fell in love with the book.
Everyone knows the basics of how/why the world came to Gander but while Gander became synonymous with 9/11, I don't know how many people realized it was the entirety of New Foundland that stopped their lives to help the "plane people". And that's what grabbed me. From the Chairman of Hugo Boss to parents of Kevin O'Rourke, FDNY killed in the Towers to, to an Orthodox Rabbi who later met the only Jew in New Foundland to Barbara Fast, an Army Brigadier General based in Stuttgart...
Each of these people were met & welcomed by the everyday people of Gander, Lewisporte, Gambo, Appleton and many other towns in New Foundland who became chauffeurs, cooks, hotel operators and every other need you could think of for those stranded in the five - six days after 9/11 with US airspace closed. This book, which reads like a novel, showed the good hearts of the Newfies and how both hosts and guests' lives were changed not just by the attacks on the US, but by the good people they met.
Also "understand New Foundland" may be the best mnemonic for remembering how to pronounce the island's name.