If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. But it’s not, so you’re on your own. Think of it as a challenge. Seriously, you’ve never known a roadblock you couldn’t go around, and it’s true that nothing is ever as easy as it could be, but as in the new book “The Rising” by Larry Silverstein, when did that ever stop you? If it weren’t for his wife’s insistence, Larry Silverstein would be dead. On the morning of September 11, 2001, he had a dermatologist’s appointment that he’d wanted to cancel but his wife urged him to go. So, he did, and instead of being at his desk in the North Tower of the World Trade Center that morning, he watched those towers fall from his Manhattan home. His ties to the World Trade Center began in the late 1970s. Silverstein was a broker for office leases and a “rather small” property developer when he landed a construction contract for the last piece of land in the World Trade Center Complex. He was excited, but it would mean years of wrangling through several political administrations, fundraising efforts, and quite a bit of risk on Silverstein’s part to finish the project. By 1986, Seven World Trade Center was finished, but Silverstein was not. On July 24, 2001, he stood for a photograph in front of the complex with a large symbolic set of keys in his hand to celebrate his new ownership of the leasehold on the World Trade Center. Weeks later, the towers were attacked by terrorists and, like most Americans, the Silversteins watched the Twin Towers collapse. The next morning, he vowed to rebuild. But that, too, proved to be easier said than done. There were insurance issues to deal with, fundraising, contracting, developing, and more politics. There was definitely a need for what Silverstein envisioned. People seemed excited. He just had to build it. If you’re of a certain age, you remember where you were when the Twin Towers fell. In “The Rising” he writes about that day and about what happened in constructing the buildings themselves, before and after. Covering more than fifty years of legalities, politics, business, and finances, this book is rich with detail that goes beyond the doggedness of constructing buildings. On the other hand, this book is overloaded with detail that goes beyond the doggedness of constructing buildings. If you’re the right business-minded reader, this book can be entertaining, but if you are not, it could be unbelievably dull, especially if you want the tower’s story without the nitty-gritty of legalities, politics, business or finance. If that’s the case, go into this book with a willingness to skip some pages here and there. Yes, “The Rising” can be thrilling and almost fun to read, but it can also be a not-so-easy book to stick with.