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Reluctant Hero: A 9/11 Hero Speaks Out About What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget
- A 9/11 Hero Speaks Out About What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget
- Narrated by: Chris Ruen
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
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Reluctant Hero: A 9/11 Hero Speaks Out About What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget
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Summary
After nearly 10 years of conflicted silence, a celebrated 9/11 survivor describes what it was like for him living with memories of 9/11 for the past decade.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael Benfante went to work, just like he had day after day, at his office on 81st floor in the World Trade Center North Tower. Moments after the first plane struck, just 12 floors above him, Benfante organized his terrified employees, getting them out of the office and moving down the stairwells. On his way down, he and another co-worker encountered a woman in a wheelchair on the 68th floor. Benfante, the woman, and Benfante's co-worker then embarked on a 96-minute odyssey of escape - the two men carrying the woman down 68 flights of stairs, out of the North Tower, and into an ambulance that rushed her to safety just minutes before the tower imploded.
A CBS video camera caught Benfante just as he got out of the building, and almost immediately, the national media came calling. Benfante sat on the couch with Oprah Winfrey, where she hailed him as a hero. Almost one year to the day after 9/11, Benfante got married, and the woman in the wheelchair sat in the front row.
That's the storybook ending. But in the aftermath of 9/11, Benfante began a journey fraught with wrenching personal challenges of critical, emotional, and psychological depth which he captures here in Reluctant Hero. Benfante shares the trappings of his public heroism, the loneliness of his private anguish, and the hope he finds for himself and for us. Because all of us - whether we were in the towers in New York City or someplace else - are 9/11 survivors.
Editor reviews
On September 11, 2001, author Michael Benfante’s heroic actions during the devastating terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center catapulted him to national fame; but the grim circumstances of his publicity haunted him in the years that followed. Ten years after the fact, Benfante published Reluctant Hero, a thoughtful and deeply moving treatise on loss, grief, and the psychological damage that he and many other Americans have endured since that fateful day.
Chris Ruen’s measured performance of this memoir provides much-needed grounding for the heavy emotionality of this valuable narrative.
What listeners say about Reluctant Hero: A 9/11 Hero Speaks Out About What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- xcxDawnyxcx
- 01-09-23
Good
A great and honest story. It was a very interesting perspective but I felt it dragged a little at the end. Also give this guys wife a medal!! She is a diamond of a woman who deserves all the good things in the world and he is one lucky man to still be married to her!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 19-09-21
A brilliant honest story about 911 and it’s impact after the fact , essential reading
This is a raw and honest account of 911 and it’s impact on a man who was there , his actions then , his suffering now and it’s impact on generations
Essential reading
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-03-23
Incredible
This book is filled with so much warmth. whether it is the act on September 11th 2001 or just the faith in the good side of humanity that runs throughout.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Shane canning
- 25-12-21
great story
rip all very good we all are interested in everyone who was there do it was sad rip all
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. Morris
- 22-09-21
One Man's Story
Michael Benfante is a hero. He's a man that chose to "do the right" thing." by helping, with the aid of a colleague, a disabled woman down 68 floors of the World Trade Centre one, the north Tower, during those horrific events of September 11th, 2001. His account of what happened in his 81st floor based company paints a terrifying picture of that day and the level of damage that, despite being around 10 floors below the impact point", was caused.
Michael Benfante was an Ivy League educated high flier, a man with goals and ambitions, his entire future already planned out, and then his world is turned upside down starting with the events of that terrible day.
He remains calm, probably something that may have made the difference between survival and dying, and got his office to leave via the staircase. I wonder how many others in the building at the time decided, not unreasonably, to remain where they were until otherwise directed.
What his account tells us, is the confusion about what had actually happened. As we on the outside watched on in horror, many inside the buildings had no idea what had actually happened, other than something bad.
One incident in the book, shortly before the collapse of the north tower and as the south tower lay in ruins, saw a total stranger refer to Benfante by his first name. Michael benfante had no idea who this man was, but he asked Michael to turn around and not go south. A fireman, also there, added that he shouldn't go in that direction because there are things there, once seen, cannot be unseen. However, the odd, long haired, man who seemingly knew who "Mike" was, was never referred to again in the book, so a bit of a mystery.
Ironically, as is so often the case with such traumatic experiences, it's the aftermath, sometimes quite some time after, is where the real problems begin with so many people. Benfante, for all his self confidence, starts to suffer. It occurred to me that perhaps those that have the highest levels of self confidence are the ones who fall farthest in such life changing situations.
The aftermath saw his job evaporate, forcing this highly educated man into construction for a living. Talk about bad luck after surviving one of the world's most tragic events.
However, and I may be unpopular for bringing this up, I do have to say that I feel that Benfante was too eager to accept the publicity offered him. In that regard, I felt the disabled woman Benfante saved had the right attitude. She shied away from the limelight where as Benfante, for the most part initially, seemed happy to go from one TV show/interview to another. To be fair, he did point out that he had turned down some big shows, Larry King being one, but I just get the sense that he aloud himself far to much media exposure and the adulation that goes with if. That's not to say that the man shouldn't have given any interviews, not at all. I just feel he overdid things in that department and I wonder if this postponed his emotional recovery from his traumatic experience. Personally speaking, I relate more to those that have done something heroic, but choose to remain in the background and not talk about it in the media extensively. I also have to state that it left a slightly off taste in my mouth when, as I recall, he even referred to himself as a hero, or having done a heroic thing. Again, perhaps unpalatable, but I got the slight sense that there was a hint at lack of modesty with regard his achievements. he mentioned his prestigious athletic abilities in college, both track and field and football. Personally, I would've mentioned only the athletic ability, as he did, when running from the collapsing north tower.
Michael benfante did a wonderful thing. He undoubtedly saved someone's life, perhaps most of his office by his quick and calm thinking and no one should forget that. My minor niggles aside, I feel for this man who has suffered greatly over the years since and I wish him all the success in putting his life back together.
If I met him, I'd shake his hand.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- shannon
- 14-12-21
Fantastic book
What an accurate and honest depiction of what 9/11 must have been like. A great read of an incredible story!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Paula
- 06-09-22
Honest and Open
Brutally honest recount of how this traumatic event effected himself and family. Gripping read.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- rbooler
- 31-10-21
struggled to finish this book .
felt like a sermon at times .Went on far too long and the writer self indulgent.The main story goog Nd gripping at times but not well written
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