Remembering 9/11

Time flies... another year has passed... it's really hard to believe that 8 years have gone by.

Sometimes things happen that we have no wish to be apart of. And 9/11 is one of them. 

I’m sure the thousands of souls who perished when 4 planes got taken over and turned into deadly killing and destroying machines would have chosen to not be a part of that infamous day of 9/11. I’m sure their families, friends, wives, husbands, children – born and those yet to be born would have strongly elected for them to be excluded from the cast as well. But there are times when things happen that are beyond our control. And for some, this loss of control is easy to handle.

While I may not have been directly involved or connected, my life has been affected one way or another for it has and will continue to go down in history as the day the world changed.

We can remember this day, 8 years later, by reflecting on where we were, what we were doing, watching the telly for the anniversary ceremony at ground-zero.

Or we could move out of the box and read a post-9/11 book. Which, while may most likely be a fictional book, will also probably bring us back to that day, that place, in a dimension that has not be televised the world over.

Here's my pick of my favourite post-9/11 fiction, in no particular order:

1) Saturday ~ Ian McEwan

Set on one particular day, 2 years after 9/11, London is thrown into chaos as the Brits protest against their nation's participation in the ensuing wars. And this disrupts the day of neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne. Not that his day is not already ruined - having witness at 4 a.m. the tell-tale signs of a plane on fire, descending beyond his neighbourhood into Heathrow. Flashbacks come without his beckoning. Was it a terror attack? Or plain machine malfunction? With these and navigating the vast number of foot-protesters, he also has to deal with Baxter, a sufferer of Huntington's Disease and a thug - just cos their cars had a kismet moment. 

Saturday re-amplifies that what happened many thousand of miles away will still find a way of changing your life.

2) The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

Set against the backdrop of a bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan, we follow this monologue of Changez, a Pakistani in his late twenties and an unnamed American whom as he chanced upon,  looking lost and in need of a soothing cup of tea. Author Mohsin Hamid spins an engaging tale of Changez’s background; his education at Princeton, his post-university life in Manhattan, balancing working for top-notch international valuation firm and a budding relationship with a beautiful American girl, and how his world changed simply with 9/11 by virtue of the he looked the way he did and the origins of his passport.

(Full review available below)

3) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

Oskar, a nine-year old boy living in Manhattan who finds a key in a vase - belonging to his father, who unfortunately was one of the persons who was in one of the World Trade Centre towers. Without his dad there, he sets out on a journey to find what the key opens. Written in a first-person voice, this book also touches on his paternal grandparents, their courtship, their marriage and their separation. I like to think of this book as addressing the white elephant in the room - we all know what happened, we all know how it happened, we all know why it happened, and we also know the who who done it. Yet, the mystery remains on the Where of the person who did it. Which is the theme of Oskar’s adventure.

And Oskar will paint a vivid image of all the children who had lost a parent that day, and the questions they will continue to ask till the end of their time.

There maybe plenty of other post-9/11 fiction out there but I feel that these 3 would give you a varying perspective on the day the world changed.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.