Reluctant Hero: A 9/11 Survivor Speaks Out About That Unthinkable Day, What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget

by Michael Benfante, Dave Hollander

Overview

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael Benfante went to work, just like he had day after day, at his office on eighty-first floor in the World Trade Center North Tower. Moments after the first plane struck, just twelve floors above him, Benfante organized his terrified employees, getting them out the office and moving down the stairwells. On his way down, he and another co-worker encountered a woman in a wheelchair on the sixty-eighth floor. Benfante, the woman and Benfante’s co-worker then embarked on a ninety-six-minute odyssey of escape—the two men carrying the woman down sixty-eight 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 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 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—we are all 9/11 survivors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628730579
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	08/11/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	820,200
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Michael Benfante became a national hero for his actions on September 11, 2001, when he and a co-worker carried a disabled woman in a wheelchair down sixty-eight flights of stairs and out of the World Trade Center North Tower to safety, just minutes before the tower imploded. He is the recipient of a host of honors and international recognition and has testified at a U.S. Senatorial special hearing about his 9/11 experience. Benfante is a 1987 Brown University graduate. He currently lives with his wife and his son in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Dave Hollander is an author and columnist writing on sports and social issues in national publications including The Huffington Post, AOL Sports, SI.com, and Interview. Hollander serves on the faculty for the New York University Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management. Hollander lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

Preface: Why this Book, and Why Now?

Introduction: How Did I Get Here?

Part I A Jersey Guy 1

Friday-Monday, September 7-10, 2001 3

Part I The Day 29

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 31

Part I Now What? 87

Wednesday-Friday, September 12-14, 2001 89

Part I A Hero's Welcome? 107

September 2001-September 2002 109

Part I When Nobody's Looking 171

2003-2006 173

Part I Depth 191

2006-2008 193

Part I We're in this Together 205

2008-2008 207

Epilogue: To Be Continued 217

Official Proposal: 9/11 National Day of Service 221

Acknowledgments 231

About the Authors 233

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

This memoir describes Benfante’s unshakable belief that there are reservoirs of kindness waiting to be tapped.

Houston Chronicle

Benfante . . . tells his post-9/11 tale of emotional and economic hardships and the searing guilt of a survivor.

Washington Post

Benfante’s memoir, Reluctant Hero, is a humbling and courageous one, detailing the struggle of an ordinary man who was forced to find strength he had only read about in books.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Benfante, catapulted to hero status after he was photographed carrying a wheelchair-bound woman down 68 floors and out of the World Trade Center, tells his post-9/11 tale of emotional and economic hardships and the seering guilt of a survivor.

The Washington Post

Benfante’s memoir, Reluctant Hero, is a humbling and courageous one, detailing the struggle of an ordinary man who was forced to find strength he had only read about in books.

The San Diego Union-Tribune