Braving the Waves: Rockaway Rises ...and Rises Again

by Kevin Boyle

The true story of the community of Rockaway Beach, New York. Hit hard not only by the events of September 11 but also by a horrific passenger jet plane crash just two months later. Tragic and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0933670079
• ISBN13: 9780933670075
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Rising Star Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

FANTASTIC - from a Firefighter

I just finished Kevin Boyle's book, Braving the Waves, and in my opinion it's fantastic! I lived through these tragedies and didn't think I wanted to read about them again but once I picked up his book, I couldn't put it down. Boyle gets inside the heads of the people he writes about. The firemen I know and respect won't open up or talk at all to reporters but they talk to Kevin because he's one of them, one of us. It choked me up half a dozen times. This book is a must read for everyone, the people from Rockaway who lived through the tragedies and outsiders who want a real insider's view. People who weren't there will feel like they were standing in the concrete dust of the WTC and smelling the burning jet fuel of Flight 587 after reading it. -George Johnson

Why isn't this story better known?

Why don't we know more about this amazing story? A jet plane crashes in the middle of a neighborhood that has just lost dozens of people on 9/11, where firmen who survived 9/11 wind up fighting to save their own houses just 2 months later. WHy isn't this story better known?It will be now if there is any justice. Kevin Boyle has written a book that brings this story to life without melodrama or false sentiment. This incredible story doesn't need purple writing, and Boyle's spare style serves it well.A damn good story that deserves to be better known.

Read this book

I really enjoyed Boyle's pace and tone throughout this book--he writes about painfull events with respect and consideration, but still maintained a compelling pace throughout the book.There are moments that are truly heart pounding, there are moments of tenderness and sorrow that brought tears to my eyes, and there elements of luck, irony and humor.Although it's clear Boyle cares for these people there is no heavy sentiment. He seems to be a writer made for his subject.

HOME OF THE BRAVE

Rockaway Beach is the unofficial capital of firefighting New York. Generations of NYC firefighters have made their homes here in this sliver of a neighborhood by the beach in the shadows of the city's skyline.Kevin Boyle captures the humor, courage and resilience of this place in what is surely one of the best books to come out of 9/11. In fact, it's inaccurate to call this a "9/11 book" at all because it's more about the powerful personal stories of ordinary people-- not just firemen-- who found themselves doing extraodinary things in the face of two unimaginable catastrophes. In this way, it calls to mind "The Perfect Storm" as it weaves the poignant-- and sometimes hilarious-- details of the lives of people you get to know and like in the shadow of an impending disaster. Here though the coming disaster was double barrelled: September 11 and the crash of Flight 587 in the heart of the neighborhood two months later.Boyle knows these people and it shows in the remarkably true to life writing. Highly recommended.

Great book

I've been out of Rockaway for a long time now, but Boyle put me right back on the boardwalk. And just when he makes us comfortable being back at the beach, he takes us to lower Manhattan on September 11. I've read a lot of eyewitness accounts but this as real as it gets. He follows the day of a bunch of firefighters and some "regular" people and it goes from bad to worse. Because Rockaway lost so many people the place is devastated but not broken. The people are trying to get on with their lives. And just like that a plane crashes in Belle Harbor. Some of the same people who were there on 9-11 rush like mad to the plane crash. Some of them run on foot because they're that close to it. It's just unreal stuff. But Boyle puts it all together.There are great stories here and some unbelievable people. I give this a big thumbs up. You will too.