Author: Ronald Louis Peterson
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Self-published
101 Chapters
Pages: 422
Includes: Table of Contents, Prologue and Epilogue
ISBN 145363245X
www.ronaldloiuspeterson.blogspot.com
Source: the author and Bostick Communications. I was not compensated to review this novel.
Press Release excerpt: A TIME TO is a 9/11 novel that baby boomers and others affected by the 9/11 tragedy can appreciate in many ways. As with all devastating events, 9/11's most lasting impact was on individual souls.
A TIME TO is a story about Al Masterson, a baby boomer and a risk manager who worked in the World Trade Center on 9/11. As Tower One collapsed on him and his companions, he was taken away on a mysterious guided tour of his life. He revisited his childhood in the '50s when he had a hard time adapting to his New York City home. A teacher had rescued him from a disastrous year so he gave her a special gift; he couldn't imagine how that gift would later impact his life....
Answers didn't come until he returned from his spiritual adventures to Ground Zero, where they were manifested in surprising turns of events that confirmed in amazing ways that love, faith, hope and charity all survived 9/11.
Author Ronald Louis Peterson, a New Yorker by birth, was inspired to write about 9/11 in a very personal way because he says, "that's the way most people experienced it." He built his novel around spiritual milestones that occur in one's life, using actual personal and historical events and settings as backdrops for his epic allegorical tale.
A TIME TO won an Award of Excellence in Deep River Book's 2010 National Writer's Contest. CatholicFiction.net says it "is a special look at life and the people God places there to help us as we grow in faith, hope, love and charity."
A TIME TO is dedicated to families who lost loved ones on 9/11, and to those who have called NYC home.
My thoughts: I was drawn to this book because of its reference to 9/11 but this story only begins there. This is a story of Al Masterson who finds himself buried beneath the rubble of Twin Tower 1 following the plane crash. From there, he enters a dream like stance wherein he is given to recall instances in his life, both good and bad, that helped him become the man he was. This is also a journey of a man finding his spirituality.
A Time To is long, at 422 pages including the prologue and epilogue and I found it difficult to stay with it. The story is good, it just didn't reach out and grab me. I was not spell-bound. There are certain elements within the story that are very good, such as Al's time as a TV news journalist. I was captivated at that point, but the rest, between the 9/11 incident (which is amazingly told!!) and Al's time as journalist and beyond, was a little slow. Ronald Louis Peterson wraps it all up cleanly, though the instances of "running into" people from his various stations in life near the end of the book, seem a bit too much, too coincidental.
All in all, it is a fair read. Rated 3/5
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