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19th out of 26 books
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American Widow
"At the heart of "American Widow" is the notion of Sept. 11 as a personal, rather than a national or political, tragedy, which, this achingly tender work reminds us, is exactly what it was." -- LA Times
Want to honor those who passed during 9-11? Turn off the stupid documentary glorifying all of those images we've seen over and over, and read this sincere account of how tha...more
Want to honor those who passed during 9-11? Turn off the stupid documentary glorifying all of those images we've seen over and over, and read this sincere account of how tha...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
September 9th 2008
by Villard
(first published September 2nd 2008)
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I love David Cross' bit on "Shut Up You Fucking Baby" where he talks about the woman who works at New York, New York Casino in Vegas who was overly devastated on 9/11 because she works just down the street from the fake world trade center. "That could've been me not me!" She cried. There are a lot of people who weren't really affected by 9/11 and despite the vow of their bumper stickers to "never forget" quickly did. They also love to talk about where they were and ...more
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i guess i expected more possibly? some parts were really touching. the beginning though was really cheesy. i kept asking myself is this for real? it sounded like something a 13 year old girl would write in her diary. the two pages that were covered with pictures of her late husband really got to me. the thing is i wanted to feel bad for this woman and parts of me did, but overall i felt bad for her husband more than anything. and the fact that she spent most of the time bitching about the red cr...more
I wanted to read American Widow by Alissa Torres ever since I spied it on Largehearted Boy’s list of favorite graphic novels of 2008. When it arrived in a big box of books David sent me I was giddy. I was intrigued for years by the bare bones of the story — young woman loses husband on 9-11 while seven months pregnant. Yikes, right?
So I was ready when I popped open the cover on a rainy Saturday — Kleenex and a big bottle of water to stave off the dehydration that can come when one shed...more
So I was ready when I popped open the cover on a rainy Saturday — Kleenex and a big bottle of water to stave off the dehydration that can come when one shed...more
Again, wishing for half stars, because this is really a 3.5 (I never know if I should round down or up)
This was a graphic novel telling Alissa Torres' story- her husband was killed on 9/11 on only his second day of work in the Towers, and she was 7 months pregnant at the time. She details the first year after his death- dealing with the Red Cross (who it quickly becomes apparent that she is NOT a fan of), dealing with various government organizations, several groups of press who want to u...more
This was a graphic novel telling Alissa Torres' story- her husband was killed on 9/11 on only his second day of work in the Towers, and she was 7 months pregnant at the time. She details the first year after his death- dealing with the Red Cross (who it quickly becomes apparent that she is NOT a fan of), dealing with various government organizations, several groups of press who want to u...more
Alissa Torres's husband, Eddie, started a job at Cantor Fitzgerald on September 10, 2001; his second day of work was his last. The story of the first year after his death is told in fragmentary bursts (with illustrations by Sungyoon Choi) that capture the frustration of dealing with the bureaucracy that sprung up around the surviving families of those who died in the World Trade Center while Torres was pregnant with their child--and when, though the specifics are left unspoken, there was an unre...more
I often hear people speak about 9/11 as if it was a personal devastation to them. On some level I don't doubt that it was, but then I read stories like that of Torres, who actually lost a loved one that day, and I think all those people should just shut up. (Yeah, I said it.) The drawings and her words combine to describe the undescribable - how it feels to know that your partner in life was taken from you in such a huge tragedy. It makes the shock I felt that day as I watched the towers fall fr...more
This was not was I was expecting it to be. I was all set for a memoir about a woman losing her husband in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which was present, but more than that this book was a chronicle of dealing with the bureaucracy of the disaster relief. Well, maybe equal parts memoir and chronicle. In that regard this book is a very frustrating read. The nonsense with aid relief to Katrina victims is still fresh in my mind, but I've sort of forgotten how the families 9/11 victims had some simila...more
I read about this book in Entertainment Weekly, which gave a favorable review, and decided to pick up this story from a pregnant woman who lost her husband in the 9/11 attacks. Told in the form of a graphic novel, this book succeeds at painting a nice picture of the atmosphere in NYC, her panicked search for her husband, and, at the end, how she deals with wanting to get away from the city, but ultimately this book was filled more with the woman's frustration with the bureaucracy and less about...more
I sobbed through about the first 5 chapters of this book. It's the heart-rending true story (told in graphic novel format) of Alissa Torres, the pregnant wife of a Cantor Fitzgerald employee who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. The book illustrates the grief that has become Alissa's new reality, as well as the struggles she faces in dealing with charitable organizations meant to help those affected. I found the middle of the book to be somewhat confusing, with the constant flashbacks a...more
This book is a true account of a woman whose Colombian husband worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and died on 9/11 when she was 7.5 months pregnant. I have stayed away from most of the post-9/11 recounts, movies and memoirs but this one is uniquely done in a comic-book style format that makes it very personal and real in a way that a movie or typical work of non-fiction would not. It's a vivid picture of what she must have suffered in the first year after the attack. I'm not sure I would recommend i...more
There are aspects of the book I really admire. I thought the closing sequence was particularly good. But the book is simply too short. The kind of tacking back and forth between present and past would have worked a lot better in longer stretches where some of the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. At the end, I really felt I didn't know much about either Eduardo or Alissa apart from their circumstances. The graphic part of this novel is very pedestrian. I don't like giving a one ...more
I'm not sure what the point of this book is. I can understand her need to write it as a means toward resolution, and I can understand the publisher's angle in publishing a graphic novel about September 11, 2001, but I'm not sure what a reader is intended to get out of it. I don't particularly sympathize with the author, or completely understand her, and I'm not sure why she would want someone to read this story. What did she want the reader to feel? Did she even try to produce emotion or encoura...more
I expected more. Torres has such a compelling story-she is 7 months pregnant with her first child when her husband, Luis, begins his job at Cantor Fitzgerald on 9/10/01. What an amazing tale of embarking on an unexpected life as a single parent. Unfortunately, the story derails into a vendetta against Red Cross and the other aid organizations that have wronged the author. Her son rarely enters the picture.
Two stars are awarded. One is for her search for her husband in the days p...more
Two stars are awarded. One is for her search for her husband in the days p...more
I flew through this last night. It was okay, I didn't hate it, but for what should have been such an emotional topic (her husband started a new job in the WTC on 9/10/01 and died on 9/11 while she was 7 months pregnant) I was strangely unmoved. Maybe there was too much to try and capture in a graphic novel but then again, if this hadn't been a graphic novel I never would have picked it up. Maybe the fact that she did the writing but someone else did the illustrations caused a disconnect too. ...more
You would think that the story of a woman who lost her husband in the World Trade Center disaster while 7 months pregnant would make for a compelling story/character but there's something missing in this story. It does a good job of making you feel the anxiousness along with the character as their world spins out of control after the events of 9/11 but the whole time I had trouble finding genuine concern for the well being of the character. I wonder if it has to do with the writer not being th...more
The author, Alissa Torres, lost her husband, who had just started an exciting new job in the World Trade Center on September 10, 2001.
This graphic novel chronicles not just their relationship leading up to 9/11 but also the Kafkaesque nightmare she had to endure afterwards being a 9/11 widow trying to claim whatever money (donations, insurance) was due her.
I really do feel for her; I'm sorry for her loss. But the book itself was unable to make me feel like I was there with h...more
This graphic novel chronicles not just their relationship leading up to 9/11 but also the Kafkaesque nightmare she had to endure afterwards being a 9/11 widow trying to claim whatever money (donations, insurance) was due her.
I really do feel for her; I'm sorry for her loss. But the book itself was unable to make me feel like I was there with h...more
OMFG. Heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching, and yet I couldn't put it down. Just read it in one sitting.
American Widow is the story of Alissa Torres, who was 7 months pregnant when she lost her husband, a Columbian who worked on the 83rd floor, in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I don't want to give too much away, but this is a beautiful book. Also very critical of the Red Cross and other "helpers" and media who surrounded those who lost loved ones.
...more
American Widow is the story of Alissa Torres, who was 7 months pregnant when she lost her husband, a Columbian who worked on the 83rd floor, in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I don't want to give too much away, but this is a beautiful book. Also very critical of the Red Cross and other "helpers" and media who surrounded those who lost loved ones.
...more
So, I was wondering when I'd come across a graphic novel that wasn't about a social misfit, and here it is. I realized this on page 12, when we meet Alissa and her revealing clubbing attire.
The story that follows is of a tender, enviable romance. The American Dream is coming true for this couple: a fixer-upper in the burbs, a bun in the oven, a well-paying job in finance. Their world begins to all apart when he loses his job (yawn). And then 9/11 happens.
Post 9/11, Aliss...more
The story that follows is of a tender, enviable romance. The American Dream is coming true for this couple: a fixer-upper in the burbs, a bun in the oven, a well-paying job in finance. Their world begins to all apart when he loses his job (yawn). And then 9/11 happens.
Post 9/11, Aliss...more
This sort of deliberately obfuscated and questionably selective method of storytelling belittles the emotional power and even importance of sharing a tale about 9/11. Alissa Torres presents herself from the beginning as an American Widow who deserves sympathy and understanding. Yet, in telling her story, she hides crucial evidence about it from her audience and shows us no more courtesy than she claims she received following the tragedy that claimed the life of her husband and a few thousand o...more
To grieve the loss of a loved one is difficult enough, but to grieve in the world’s spotlight seems an unfathomable trial.
Writer Alissa Torres’ husband started his dream job Sept. 10, 2001, at the World Trade Center. The next day, he was gone. Torres was seven months pregnant. “American Widow” chronicles her despair, struggle and determination, holding nothing back. At times, it’s excruciating to read, because this is her life, and you feel it on every page, the unfiltered, raw emoti...more
Writer Alissa Torres’ husband started his dream job Sept. 10, 2001, at the World Trade Center. The next day, he was gone. Torres was seven months pregnant. “American Widow” chronicles her despair, struggle and determination, holding nothing back. At times, it’s excruciating to read, because this is her life, and you feel it on every page, the unfiltered, raw emoti...more
An illustrated book about this chick, Alissa, whose 32-year-old husband was killed in the Twin Towers on his second day at his new job. She was 7 months pregnant at the time. It's really, really sad because it tells about all the people who were supposed to help her and how she kept getting the runaround from them all. The Red Cross, FEMA, her husband's new work. She had to virtually threaten them to get any assistance. And people kept telling her that they knew how she felt. When they really di...more
This is a graphic novel about a woman who's husband died in the World Trade Center on 9/11--particularly tragic because she was 7 1/2 months pregnant at the time and his first day of work there was 9/10. I expected this to be a story about her love for her husband and how she managed to live her life with her son after the tragedy, but I was a little disappointed. Mostly this focused instead on how hard she had to work to get any aid from charities and how the charities were constantly ripping...more
American Widow is a graphic memoir revealing the story of Alissa Torres who was left widowed at seven months pregnant by the tragedy of 9/11.
The story includes that fateful day up to the one-year anniversary with alternating flash backs including scenes of Eddie at 10-years old, his life before meeting Alissa and their courtship, marriage and pregnancy. In chapter one alone, my arms were covered with goose bumps. 9/11 was just Eddie’s second day at his new job with Cantor Fitzgerald...more
The story includes that fateful day up to the one-year anniversary with alternating flash backs including scenes of Eddie at 10-years old, his life before meeting Alissa and their courtship, marriage and pregnancy. In chapter one alone, my arms were covered with goose bumps. 9/11 was just Eddie’s second day at his new job with Cantor Fitzgerald...more
Tough to read, because of the subject, the travails of a young pregnant woman whose new husband jumps from the World Trade Center 9/11. And because of the sometimes amateurish, and always acerbic and distanced voice of the author. Nevertheless, worth reading, because it makes the suffering of survivors (who have good reason to be acerbic and distanced) tangible, and opens a window on the bureaucratic nature of disaster relief. The Red Cross doesn't come across too well here.
While we all know the 9/11 stories of sorrow and loss, this book took a look into the complex emotions of a 9/11 widow. It related stories of how she waded through the Red Cross red tape, the well-intentioned advice from family and strangers that drove her nuts, and the competing emotions of guilt, anger, and sadness at her deceased husband. I am still a newbie at the graphic novel, but I found this one easy to read and accurately depicting her emotions at each moment.
The true story of a woman whose husband jumped from one of the towers during 9-11. She was seven or eight months pregnant at the time.
Instantly compelling and honest without forced self-pity or blockbuster appeal, Torres explains how life went on. Smooth, flowing illustration lent itself to the dialogue and enhanced the narrative. I cried most of the way through this book and blew my nose while my husband asked if i was okay and kept watching a movie on tv.
Instantly compelling and honest without forced self-pity or blockbuster appeal, Torres explains how life went on. Smooth, flowing illustration lent itself to the dialogue and enhanced the narrative. I cried most of the way through this book and blew my nose while my husband asked if i was okay and kept watching a movie on tv.
Her circumstances create a compelling story. Unfortunately, Torres squanders it and uses the book to play a victim. I realize it sounds crude to accuse her of playing the victim because she was, of course, a victim, but her story would have been much better written by a person who could truly gain the reader's sympathy. I assumed her story would evoke powerful emotion, I just never thought it would leave me silently be screaming "Shut up!"
This is the first graphic novel I've ever read; so I really have nothing to compare or contrast with it. It was a stunning story of one widow's life after her husband was killed along with over 600 of his fellow employees from Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Tower disaster. I read it as part of a discussion series at my local public library - and hope I manage to get away from my own job to hear others' thought about it.
I found Alissa Torres's graphic memoir, American Widow, both very necessary and very painful to read. Torres's husband, Eddie Torres, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on September 11, 2001 and was among the thousands killed. I find people who write memoirs to be brave and I thought that letting strangers in via this memoir -- with its connection to one of the most tragic events in history -- was extremely brave.
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