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Outstanding
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The New York Times Michiko Kakutani
Remarkable.
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Outstanding
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The New York Times Book Review Dexter Filkins
A marvelous book. The Looming Tower is not just a detailed, heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11, written with style and verve, and carried along by villains and heroes that only a crime novelist could dream up. It’s an education, too — though you’d never know it — a thoughtful examination of the world that produced the men who brought us 9/11, and of their progeny who bedevil us today.
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Outstanding
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Christian Science Monitor Erik Spanberg
A book filled with dazzling insight, pitch-perfect anecdotes, and compelling context. Simply put, this is the most thorough and accessible account of the people, politics, and roiling theology behind Islamic terrorism. It should be required reading for every American; yes, it is that good.
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Outstanding
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Wall Street Journal Peter Bergen
[FBI Official John O'Neil's] story is the most poignant, and frustrating, of many in this immaculately crafted, unsettling book.
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Outstanding
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Booklist Brendan Driscoll
Wright seems to have found his calling: a perceptive and intense page-turner. [1 Aug 2006, p.34]
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Wright, a New Yorker writer, brings exhaustive research and delightful prose to one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism. [19 June 2006, p.56]
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Essential for an understanding of that dreadful day. [1 June 2006, p.566]
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe Steve Weinberg
Lawrence Wright's book is my new touchstone. None of the previous books led me to say "Aha, now I think I understand" as frequently. It is also the best example of narrative storytelling.
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Outstanding
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Houston Chronicle Ronnie Crocker
Wright's story sparkles with exquisite detail
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times Daniel Kurtz-Phelan
A magisterial, beautifully crafted narrative.
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Outstanding
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Daily Telegraph Damian Thompson
It takes Wright several hundred pages to describe the years of palm-greasing and back-stabbing that handed the responsibility for international jihad to a psychopath (hailed, incidentally, as an Islamic messiah by agents of Saddam Hussein). He does so with immense forensic skill, in the stripped-down prose of the best thriller-writers.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
A stunningly well-researched opus. [25 Aug 2006, p.89]
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Favorable
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Library Journal Elizabeth Morris
Wright's research is exemplary, including dozens of primary-source interviews and first-person perspectives, and he provides welcome insight into the time line leading up to 9/11. [1 July 2006, p.96]
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Favorable
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Wesley Wark
Wright provides immense and colourful detail about the birth and evolution of al-Qaeda and its principals. Wright can make a familiar story new, but his account is strangely lacking in narrative drive.
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Favorable
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Chicago Sun-Times Matthew Nickerson
The Looming Tower excels at this: colorizing the black-and-white images we have of the Sept. 11 figures.
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Favorable
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New York Observer Charles Taylor
Gripping, lucid.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Bruce Hoffman
Wright deftly evokes the jihadist milieu, but he is on less solid ground later in the book when he attempts to recast his narrative into a sort of police procedural: a race against time by the forces of good -- embodied by John O'Neill, the mercurial head of the FBI's New York counterterrorism office -- to thwart the evil machinations that culminated in the 9/11 attacks.
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Favorable
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The Economist
Mr Wright offers not much new information on his subject—and perhaps nothing that is incontrovertible. Instead, he has sought to write the most comprehensive, objective and readable guide to al-Qaeda's emergence. He scores quite well on each count, having produced a concise history coloured by many enjoyable anecdotes.
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Favorable
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The Observer Jason Burke
There is sufficient new material or, at least, sufficient additional detail on episodes that were not previously properly understood to make the book well worth reading.
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Mixed
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The Guardian Tariq Ali
Wright has employed the vacuum-cleaner approach, collecting all the published material, sifting through it and then conducting dozens of interviews and doing a great deal of cross-checking. It is a murky tale.
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