- Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Mar 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0446605417
- ISBN-13: 978-0446605410
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,907,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
David Fitzgerald is a 40-year-old English teacher with the rare ability to reach at least some of his students at a poor high school in Coney Island. But one who he can't reach is Nasser Hamdy, a Palestinian boy so scarred by hate that he joins with terrorists to plant a bomb in a school bus. A combination of accident and courage turns Fitzgerald into a media hero when he keeps most of his class from boarding the bus and then risks his life to rescue a pregnant teenager who got on early. But circumstantial factors quickly turn the tide and make Fitzgerald a prime suspect in the bombing. He is savaged by the system but never officially accused.
Blauner does everything well, from creating compelling scenes of urban terror, to making us believe in Fitzgerald as a gifted teacher, loving father, and exhausted husband. Blauner's background as a journalist also makes the media reaction within the story instantly credible--humanizing at least one member of the ravening media rat pack.
Catch Blauner's two previous thrillers: Slow Motion Riot and The Intruder, both available in paperback. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Thorough reportage and dead-on description make Blauner's latest city-streets novel (after 1997's paperback bestseller The Intruder) as impressive for its realism as for its suspense. David Fitzgerald is a slang-talking, highly literate 40-year-old English teacher who tolerates the frustrations of working at dilapidated Coney Island High School for the sake of students like bright, conflicted Palestinian Elizabeth Hamdy. Elizabeth's older brother, Nasser, was also once in Fitzgerald's class. Unreachable and full of hatred for America and Israel, he has joined a terrorist group that practices jihad, believing that even robbing a convenience store or killing a child is sanctioned by God's will. When Nasser and his fellow terrorists plant a bomb in a school bus, Fitzgerald becomes an accidental hero by preventing most of his class from entering the vehicle and then risking his life to rescue a pregnant teenager who is already on board. Circumstantial factors, however, soon reverse Fitzgerald's image and he becomes a prime suspect in the bombing, savaged by the system but never officially accused. Dysfunctional urban settings inhabited by uneasy, suspicious immigrants create a backdrop to Fitzgerald's personal drama: a marriage to a mentally unstable actress, and a deep fear that his contact with his son will be terminated. Blauner, a former journalist, writes about the media with the jaded authority of an insider. His novel looks unflinchingly at the aspects of contemporary American life that make morality a transient, relative principle. Agent, Richard Pine. 175,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent Audiobook Fare...,
By
This review is from: Man Of The Hour (Audio Cassette)
There was a lot more to this tape than it seemed at first "reading." At first, I found myself a little wary of a terrorist plot, given how the very subject is super-charged with anxiety. The plot, however, was more about a young man caught in very conflicting societies and belief systems, a teacher who wants to be better than he believes he is, and a sister's love of her brother making it near impossible to do the right things.The plot is basically itself quite straightforward: a teacher is catapulted to fame when a school bus bombing gives him an opportunity to shine through with courage: he saves one person from the bus. It doesn't last, however, as he is soon the key suspect in the bombing. As the real terrorists plan a new assault, the teacher's life falls apart, and the sister to the man who planted the bomb starts to realize what is going on, the tension jacks up, notch by notch. Joe Mantegna has a good voice for this tale, moving from the voices of a Moslem teen to a Brookyn teacher with ease, and without sounding overmuch like a bad stereotype. His pacing is excellent. It's a strong enough story to entertain, and it did make me think a little about the nature of courage and sacrifice. 'Nathan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suprisingly Good,
By
This review is from: Man of the Hour (Mass Market Paperback)
I picked this book up from a second hand book store for something to read on the train into work. Well I could not put this book down until I finished it. The book has the intrigue and action of the film 'Seige' without the marshal Law . The teacher who gets framed, the students blaming him, the FBI being the FBI. Lastly the parents not wanting the teacher in the vicinty of their children. He has to find the real bomber before he loses self control and his own life.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Boy, talk about a bad day at the office!,
By
This review is from: Man of the Hour (Mass Market Paperback)
In MAN OF THE HOUR, the reader is reminded that glory is fleeting, especially when driven by the capricious print and television media. David Fitzgerald is an English teacher, and a darn good one, at the Coney Island High School. (I consider teaching one of the most honorable of professions, more so than even medicine or law. I can still remember the handful of really excellent teachers in my life. But, I digress.) One day, the bus on which David is to take his class on a field trip is destroyed by a bomb. Luckily, only two people were aboard at the time, the driver and a pregnant student. The driver dies, but Fitzgerald risks his life to save the girl. He immediately becomes the media's darling hero of the moment. Unfortunately, because of circumstance, ambiguous evidence, and confused statements David made after the blast, he soon becomes the chief suspect, and the media turns on him with a savage vengeance.We know from the very beginning that the real bomber is limo driver Nasser, an ex-student of Fitzgerald's, who is a 24-year old of Palestinian birth previously imprisoned by the Israelis. This experience leaves him hating Israel and, of course, the pro-Zionist American society and everything for which it stands. Now, in America, Nasser has fallen in with a couple of moth-eaten, sad-to-be-alive Arab terrorists that manage to give even that profession a bad name. Thus, the plot inspired very little suspense in this reader, only a mild curiosity as to how the author would redress the balance in order to achieve the de rigueur happy ending. David is a likable enough character, especially as he's also embroiled in a child custody battle with an ex-wife who, in the technical jargon of psychiatry, is "just plain nuts". As a bombing suspect, he also faces loss of his job and imprisonment. Definitely the makings of a bad hair day. Nonetheless, neither my sympathy for Fitzgerald, nor my esteem for teachers in general, compels me to award this novel anything more than a marginal "thumbs up".
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
