9/11

From Love At Ground Zero

BEFORE THE NEW York sun had climbed to noon, by which
time television stations around the world were repeating, like a
film loop in a pornographic peep show, images of unthinkable
catastrophe; before TV anchors found their gravest tones of
voice with which to christen the shocking events “a day of
infamy,” no less historic and horrific than December 7th
or November 22nd, days etched permanently into memory by all
who experienced them; before America’s violent baptism under
the clear blue sky of a late summer morning; it was, after all,
just an ordinary day beginning in an ordinary way.

Commuters by the tens of thousands streamed into the city
by train and subway, by bus and car, by bicycle and on foot,
rushing forward in a relentless march to another work day, with
computers to boot, phone calls to make, meetings to attend,
deals to close, new deals to initiate. Deals were lurking
everywhere (“the business of America is business”) in this city
that considered itself the financial center of the world and
therefore the center of western civilization, New York,
stretching awake with no suspicion of how much political
innocence could be lost so quickly, oblivious to its
vulnerability, oblivious to the march of history. September 11,
2001, was just another day as a great city scurried to life, a day
like yesterday and presumably a day like tomorrow. Not an
American hurrying to work could have guessed what was about
to happen. You certainly didn’t expect it.

5.0 out of 5 stars He Does It Again June 3, 2004

By John David Nugent

Format:Paperback

In Love At Ground Zero, novelist, playwright, and teacher Charles Deemer presents a haunting story in the style of Romeo and Juliet about the love between an American boy and an Indonesian Muslim girl during the aftermath of the World Trade Center destruction.

Deemer puts the tale in present tense, occassionally passing cynical asides directed at the reader, making the novel not only a well-written narrative, but a challenging interactive experience.

One not only feels for the star-crossed protagonists, but also sees himself and his prejudices as the families regard one another with fear in light of present situations.

This is a novel which requires a second reading before an analysis can be made. As a rule, Deemer writes deep, moving, complex fiction which challenges the reader to think about himself and his own place in this changing world rather than the escapist shallow stories which purvade (sp?) Popular fiction today.

However, this novel deserves that second reading. And a third. And a fourth.

Definitely something which belongs in classrooms in later years.

p.s. What?! More than one reading? There's no accounting for taste ha ha.

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Harriet was inspired by this novel to do a painting with the same title.

"Love At Ground Zero" by Harriet K. Levi

And then the painting became the cover of my later novel, 

Sodom, Gomorrah & Jones:

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