Katharine G.Leis, Glimpses ( a 9/11 story)

This review is from:
Glimpses

10 characters. And that is all.
Characters that any true person can relate to. Characters who have dreams, who have hopes, who win and lose tiny little battles every day. Characters who likely have dropped toast to land freshly-buttered side down. Characters like all of us.
Characters about to share one event.
Yes, it takes place in New York City. Yes, it quickly becomes clear that September 11th is about to wipe the morning's toast disaster from each of their minds. Yes it's another 9-11 inspired piece of "art."
But it's done well.
This is not another ignorant country song to rally the nation against the bad-guys. This is a small and wonderful collection of normal moments, carefully crafted like a spider-web about to be blown away by an unseen force.
Included in this collection is an epilogue where Katharine herself becomes one of the characters and openly shares her account of the event without pretense or preachy opinions.
An enjoyable read.

Another comment::

Glimpses is an in depth look inside the individual lives of ten people. Page by page you journey with them through their day. Experiencing first hand who they are, what they do, how they think and insight on their individual goals in life. You'll enter their homes, work places and the minds of these five women and five men. Their ages vary and each of them could resemble someone you've met somewhere in time. Although, I've been known to start reading a book and get easily distracted. Not so the case with Glimpses. I could not put it down until I finished reading it in its entirety. Great piece of work from this first time author and I'll be anxiously awaiting her next book. ...

More:

The beauty of this book is its simplicity. Ten common people--a rising executive, an aspiring actress, a middle-aged newsstand owner, a nanny for a power couple, a womanizing bartender, an aerobics teacher with self-image issues, a garbage hauler, a drug-addled stripper, a double amputee who works with kids, and a schoolgirl who feels that nothing in the world can be worse than being caught without your homework--are shown going about their lives on September 10, 2001, in a city very like New York. The expected denouement is not how things turn out, as the story segues into an impassioned personal first-person voice by the obviously affected narrator, whose own helplessness was caused by her feeling lost and useless in Orlando, Florida. The pat symmetry of the narrative, which threatens to be trite in the early going, is redeemed by finely observed details and an outpouring of emotion that sums up the universal sense of closeness that was lost in America all too quickly.

And another:

We all have those moments when we sit back and think to ourselves, "Why am I not anywhere near where I thought I would be at this stage in my life". Then we try to think of what it was that went wrong. We attempt to pinpoint this life changing decision we made somewhere along the line that put us where we are today. Why do we do this? We are looking for someone to blame. The book Glimpses by Katharine Leis is a wonderful reminder that we are in control of our own lives even when it feels out of control. There is nobody to blame, but ourselves, if we are not headed in the direction of where we want to be. Life is too short to not be doing what we truly desire to do. We are reminded of this as we read about the daily lives of the ten different characters Ms. Leis descriptively describes and revealing their inner thoughts. Glimpses is not a book that I will keep lined up on my bookshelf with the rest. I have decided to pack it away with my Christmas/New Year's Eve decorations. This way I know I will start every year by rereading it and bringing back the revitalizing feeling that comes at the end of this book. Hopefully the feeling will last throughout the year.