Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat - Hardcover

Burau, Caroline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0873515692 ISBN 13: 9780873515696

Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press,U.S., 2006

Synopsis

Hardback

About this title

Review:

"Burau puts us in the hot seat and shows us the madness, the sadness, and the gallows humor of a profession that serves and protects in ways we never dream. And by telling us what goes on when the microphone is silent, she has taken the voice on the radio and given it a heart."
--Michael Perry, author of Population 485

"Burau puts us in the hot seat and shows us the madness, the sadness, and the gallows humor of a profession that serves and protects in ways we never dream. And by telling us what goes on when the microphone is silent, she has taken the voice on the radio and given it a heart."

--Michael Perry, author of Population 485

"Burau's account nicely draws the reader into the world of a do-gooder stretched to the limits of her ability to help at all....We see a perceptive mind trying to make sense of both internal and external chaos."

--City Pages

The day may come when I have to dial 911. I hope to God that the person who answers is Caroline Burau or someone like her. Funny, honest, and elegantly simple, this book left me with a sense of grace and hope. Alison McGhee, author of Shadow Baby, Rainlight, Was It Beautiful? and Falling Boy "

"Burau puts us in the hot seat and shows us the madness, the sadness, and the gallows humor of a profession that serves and protects in ways we never dream. And by telling us what goes on when the microphone is silent, she has taken the voice on the radio and given it a heart."

--Michael Perry, author of Population 485

"Burau's account nicely draws the reader into the world of a do-gooder stretched to the limits of her ability to help at all....We see a perceptive mind trying to make sense of both internal and external chaos."

--City Pages

"The day may come when I have to dial 911. I hope to God that the person who answers is Caroline Burau or someone like her. Funny, honest, and elegantly simple, this book left me with a sense of grace and hope."--Alison McGhee, author of Shadow Baby, Rainlight, Was It Beautiful? and Falling Boy

"A witty, gritty look at life on the receiving end of our cries for help - [Burau] proves she found her true calling."

--Reader's Digest, "Five Things We Don't Want You to Miss," August 2006

Synopsis:

You answer a call from a 14-year-old boy asking for someone to arrest his mother, who is smoking crack in their bathroom. You talk with him until the cops arrive, making sure there are no weapons around and learning that his favourite subject in school is lunch. Five minutes later, you have to deal with someone complaining about his neighbour's clarinet practice. What is it like to be on the receiving end of desperate calls for help...every day? Caroline Burau, a former newspaper reporter and nursing student who couldn't stand the sight of blood, takes a job as an emergency dispatcher because she likes helping people. But on-the-job training at the comm centre proves to be more than she bargained for. As she adjusts to a daily life of catastrophe and comedy, domestics and drunks, cops and robbers, junk food and sarcasm, lost cats and suicides, she discovers that crisis can become routine, that co-workers can be mean - that she must continue to care and, at times, learn how to let go.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0873515692
• ISBN 13: 9780873515696
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206