Title: 4:09 to 9:02 Boston To Oklahoma and New York Cities: Beyond the Bombings
Author: David Hamel
Publisher: ‎ PageTurner Press and Media, LLC
ISBN: ‎ 1638716927
Pages: ‎ 162
Genre: Non-Fiction / Biographies & Memoirs
Reviewed by: David Allen

Read Book Review

The book, 4:09 to 9:02 Boston To Oklahoma and New York Cities: Beyond the Bombings, brims with life. In a sense it is an old story with a recurring theme: the clash of life and human spirit with the sheer banality of evil. Author David Hamel, a career Air Force Master Sergeant, describes how his path intersected at several key points with infuriatingly destructive events in our country’s recent history.

Hamel’s remarkable resilience shines through on every page. Narrative threads include his gutsy marathon runs (finishing 130 or more at last count), his active-duty experience in Korea, the Hamel’s failed attempts at having a child, and their heartening spiritual recoups at the sites of devastation and terror.

Grief is a long slow process. It takes time, support and a whole lot of love. Grief is a healing process and is diametrically opposed to depression. Hamel never gives in and he and his wife Gloria never gave up.

The Hamels’ first rendezvous with devastation was in 1995 in Oklahoma. They were attending a fertility clinic and became bystanders of the second worst terror bombing on U.S. soil in American history. Fifteen children – 168 lives in all – were taken in an egregious expression of maniacal separatist fervor. (The bombers, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, paying us all back for the Waco takedown two years earlier.)

Fast forward: 1993, the Boston Marathon. Another senseless explosion, more violence – and more egregious loss of life. This event was particularly memorable for David Hamel, who could well have been one of the victims. Fast forward again to: September 11, 2001. The twin towers of the World Trade Center fall, and the world is once again reminded that (in Hamel’s words), ‘Freedom is not free.’

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. But the author’s vigilance is always tempered with love, with humor, and with fair play. The writing expresses continual wonder at the good things in life. Hamel partakes of these and shares them with the reader in the tender and moving photographs that accompany the always fluent text. Hamel’s book is a take home lesson – Life Appreciation & Dignity 101, in the face of abhorrent evil. The book is easily enjoyed by readers of all ages and persuasions. There are teddy bears and many moments of lightness and courage that make the read an absolute inspiration.