The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001
By: Garrett M. Graff / Narrated By: Holter Graham and Cast
Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
All stories need to be told…
This is how it goes…
I start listening to an audiobook, and if it’s engaging? I am immersed in that world, enjoying a trip to a magical place, or to another time. I get through it in No Time Flat. And if it’s atrocious? Ennui-inspiring? I can’t get through it fast enough: Once again, No Time Flat.
At 16-hours, The Only Plane in the Sky should’ve been listened to over a day and a half, no problem.
Here’s how it went:
I was there. It was happening again, and whereas I first thought: I’d better pause this Listen, switch it up with a different audiobook? Well, that didn’t happen. How does one even get to a different audiobook when one is staring at the walls, horrific images going through one’s mind, memories made flesh and bone and blood and smoke. And fire.
What is there that I can possibly say? If you’re of a different generation, one whose beginnings were after 9/11, p’raps you really need to listen to this. It explains so much of how we got to Here. No longer being able to say goodbye to a loved one at the plane gates. Why disaster drills are common. Why we have to take off our shoes when we go through Security as we travel. How Big Brother got his start, and why it was totally okay with the populace. We were hurting, and we were scared.
Don’t forget about our Forever Wars, a war in Afghanistan that could’ve been won had not Iraq been sold to the public as being part and parcel of 9/11. We were hurting, and we were scared…
But this is so, so much more than that. Author Garrett M. Graff’s meticulous research might be one huge rabbit hole to go down, and trust me when I tell you that it feels mighty snug down there, like you can’t breathe, like hurricanes of crumbled building, of ash, of the incinerated, surround you, getting in your nostrils, in your mouth, down straight to the lungs that are longing to breathe. There is no place to run when you’re trapped.
I’d been looking forward to listening to this audiobook, juggled my weekly hours so I could easily take on 16-hours, but at the beginning? I honestly thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it through even the first hour. Altho’ “Did Not Finish” is NEVER something I’ll do, Suffering Loudly is my Go-To when in the midst of poor writing, or flawed narration, or in this case: An Oral History. Because, you see, Graff compiled so very much data, scrolled through everything, and he brought us a true accounting of every single experience to be had during 9/11, starting with life as it was Before on 9/10, checking all the boxes conceivable, then wrapping it up with SUCH gripping, such heartbreaking shock and sadness: life After, a weary and sad 9/12.
But it’s structured as stories from all walks of life, framed with a: (Name), (Insert Job Title, or Where This Person Started, be it their occupation, what floor they were on, what fire station, an entire world’s worth of information), then (Memory). And most of these are just a one-line-memory before we’re back to the next Name/Job/Where From(s), and onto the next, then onto the next. 16-hours worth; I thought I was going to die.
However, listening to this is an act of standing in solidarity; of holding sacred space for all whom we were with our hearts, our minds, our souls even tho’ miles away; of prayers fervently offered, sent through the skies, as we watched people as they jumped or fell. It’s an all-encompassing journey, and my GOD my back ached from trying to carry it all; my skin hurt from flying glass; my body broke as slabs of concrete fell from the sky. And yes, there were Ugly Sobs that couldn’t be shed then because they were tucked away, hidden lest they overwhelmed me.
Holter Graham does the main narrative but then the full cast takes over for individual memories, and some are better than others. To be quite honest, tho? It was the unpolished voices that rather caused the deluge of my own memories to come rushing out. Add cockpit recordings, of pilots serene in their ho-hum day, of hijackers accidentally broadcasting admonishments and threats to terrified passengers, of a flight attendant strong and capable but unable to consistently hold the line as people, other attendants, were stabbed and left bleeding. And finally, recordings of the military: Is this Real World? Yes, Real World. Narrators with various capabilities but each having the snap and emotional gravitas to make sure that this, The Only Plane in the Sky, will leave you, well, speechless.
The horror of the jumpers; the valiant efforts of boats evacuating the stranded. Everything.
There. That’s all.
Speechless, and I have no words left…
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