Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

Book Overview

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - Colum McCann's beloved novel inspired by Philippe Petit's daring high-wire stunt, which is also depicted in the film The Walk starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812973992
• ISBN13: 9780812973990
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended

On the morning of August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit strung a wire between the new, not entirely occupied, twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. He proceeded to step out onto the wire, a quarter of a mile above the pavement, and walk across, eight times, for a period of 45 minutes, while office workers, commuters, and police looked on in wonder, admiration, and consternation. Colum McCann tells the story of this aerial crime, enriching it with the stories of ten people who saw or were affected by the aerialist's action that day, including an Irish-born "street priest" in the South Bronx and his brother; Petit's sentencing judge, his wife, and son; mother/daughter hookers; and computer programmers on the West Coast. The reader is treated to a series of narratives that could stand alone as short stories, but that are, in the end, interconnected on the day of Philippe Petit's performance. The novel introduces a stunning variety of social and historical issues that played out in the decade of the 1970's. The breakdown of social class is seen in the coming together of a group of mothers, mourning the loss of their sons in the Vietnam War, while celebrating their lives. The effects of poverty and drug addiction on women and children are illustrated by the "family business" of prostitution. The power of interlinked computers and telecommunications was in its infancy and creating excitement among the programmers who were thinking and dreaming big. The Vietnam War, moving towards its close in 1974, divided friends and family in New York City and elsewhere. The World Trade Center towers, newly constructed and occupied, represent a beginning in this novel, rather than the iconic destruction and terror we associate with them today. Reading this novel, I was struck by the vast changes in communication between 1974 and the present. The Manhattanites on the sidewalk looking up at Petit paused in their busy lives to try to figure out what was happening 110 stories above them. They could not check CNN or their smart phones, as we would do today. They couldn't go online when they got to work to learn about what they'd seen. Computer programmers on the West Coast, who heard rumors of Petit's stunt, hacked into the phone system and began calling pay phones in New York City, hoping someone would pick up and tell them what was happening. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle and the Internet, it is hard to imagine how slowly, just 35 years ago, a sensational story could develop. This book is extraordinary -- for its writing, for its depiction of 1970's New York, and for the way it captures the emotions of the lives being lived in its pages.

A Startling Portrait of NYC in the 1970s

Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin" follows the lives of a group of individuals immediately before and after Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. Although the book does not feature Petit as one of its central characters, the lives of all of the main characters intersect with Petit's walk in a key way, creating a neat puzzle around the event. The book looks at people from all walks of life in NYC in the 1970s--from Bronx hookers to a Park Avenue matron. As the lives of each of these people comes together you wonder who will survive this vicious city, where people and souls seem to be eaten alive. This was the first work I had ever read by McCann, and wow, was I impressed. McCann is a master storyteller and the way he weaves words together creates such vivid pictures, you feel like you can smell the smoke from the burning Bronx. While this novel wasn't my typical style--it is much darker and rawer than what I typically read--McCann's literary gifts can only leave a reader in awe. I did have a few problems with the structure of the novel--the jumping from character to character sometimes felt jumpy and abrupt, but I think this technique was intended to jar the reader--mimicking the realities of life in 1970s New York. The ending also felt out of place to me. While this is not exactly light summer reading, I would definitely recommend this book to fans of great english literature. This work has marked McCann as one of the greats of the modern world, and I can't wait to see what else he produces.

This Is One Of The Very Best Books I've Read In A Long Time. It Is Illuminating!

McCann writes with an authoritatively bold yet tenderly compelling voice. He captures the rhythms of NYC - the cadences of its different boroughs, and before the reader knows it, she has surrendered herself to McCann's magic. `Let The Great World Spin' immediately embraces the reader, speaks to her mind/body and with a gentle urgency entreats her to read on. It is only fair to warn anyone reading this that I, unequivocally, loved this book. The writing is utterly beautiful, as well as convincing. It is populated with some of the most colorfully nuanced characters a reader could hope to meet. McCann connects some of these characters in uncanny ways and breathtakingly displays their humanity. The use of the word `spin, spinning, spun' is nicely salted throughout the book. He is a writer's writer who is able to encapsulate everything that a novel should be. There is music within these pages - some elegiac and some rather joyful. It is August 1974 and a tightrope walker is attempting to walk his wire between the Twin Towers. A crowd gathers to witness history. It has been stated that this event is allegorical of 9/11, as well as being the thread that weaves the tapestry of very different characters' stories. Perhaps, this is so. Perhaps, it is a harbinger of things to come. We first meet the brothers Corrigan in Dublin sometime in the mid-1950's. It soon becomes apparent that the younger Corrigan is drawn to life's underbelly. He later becomes a monk and finds his way to the south Bronx. Many a synopsis states that Corrigan has `demons.' However, McCann writes the following: "Corrigan told me once that Christ was quite easy to understand. He went where He was supposed to go. He stayed where He was needed. He took little or nothing along, a pair of sandals, a bit of a shirt, a few odds and ends to stave off the loneliness. He never rejected the world. If He had rejected it, He would have been rejecting mystery. And, if He rejected mystery, He would have been rejecting faith." [page 20] Corrigan may have been attempting to do his Lord's work in the manner in which he saw this to be. Corrigan befriends an unlikely trio of prostitutes who frequently use his spartan apartment's bathroom. As the novel progresses, the reader learns to care for Tillie and Jazzlyn, as well as Jazzlyn's two small children. Their journey is one a reader should not miss. McCann introduces us to a mother's support group. They lost their sons in Viet Nam. An unlikely alliance is formed between Claire and Gloria. [Gloria steals the heart! States she, "Everything falls into the hands of music eventually." Page 314] Wealthy meets poor meets middle class. Grief and pain know no boundaries. Lest anyone think that McCann cannot write with a softly subtle, but oh so tragic sense of romance, this reviewer refers to Adelita and an all too brief section called, 'Centavos.' All this reviewer is left with is exa

Just stunning - I can't stop thinking about this book.

There are no spoilers in this review. This is a difficult book to describe. It consists of a series of linked stories, that (mainly) take place in New York City during the summer of 1974. We start off reading about a man who is walking a tightrope between the Twin Towers. (This actually did happen, and I remember it well. The man was Phillip Petit, although he isn't named in this book. It really was amazing and people talked about it for a long time.) Many of the narratives/stories involve people that either witness this event personally, or hear about it. The event is often in the background, as something that links the stories. The stories are also connected in that several characters introduced early on become narrators later on in the book. In this way, you often get a Rashomon effect - seeing the same event from different points of view. We literally are taken from the worst neighborhoods in the Bronx, to tony penthouses in the nicest part of Manhattan. We are introduced to all sorts of New Yorkers - from prostitutes to society ladies, from idealistic priests to the morally corrupt, from cops to judges, from the very old to the very young, and more. One of the nice things about this book is that you really get a feel for both time and place. This is definitely 1974, and this is definitely New York City. A friend asked me if this book is in any way about 9/11. I told her that even though none of the narratives take place in 2001, it is relevant, because we all know what happened on that day and can't help but reflect on that. It adds another layer to these stories. For me, the book started out just okay. But as I continued to read, I started to enjoy it more and more, and I became familiar with all these characters in a way that I can only describe as profoundly intimate. By the time I turned the last page, I was very moved, and felt like I had been through an intense and stirring experience. Highly recommended. I predict that this book will be shortlisted for some big awards this year. It's that special, and the writing is beautiful.

Do "Things Arise Out of the Ashes of Chance" or are They Meant to Be?

This is a brilliant book; lyrical, poignant and powerful. It is that rarest of books, the kind that you know will reside inside you for a very long time and will have changed you in some profound way that words can not address. It is a book that, when you reach the last page, will leave you feeling stunned and not sure whether to take a deep breath to digest it all or turn to page one and begin all over again. In a sense this book is an homage to the city of New York. It begins with a true historical event, when Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. It is a marvelous sight. It was "one of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sense of the slew of ordinary days. New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief". (p.247) Several people look up to see this tight-rope walker and this shared act of perception is the glue for this book. In some way, each of their lives are inter-connected and will remain connected through time. There is Corrigan, very religious in a social/political/and theological sense, who is struggling between his faith and the woman he loves. Corrigan's love is a Guatamalan nurse, hoping that he will choose her over his God. Ciaran, whose life is in flux, is Corrigan's brother. Tillie is a prostitute in trouble with the law and hoping that the legacy of prostitution will not be passed down to her granddaughters as it has been to her daughter. Claire lives on Park Avenue but also lives in a world of grief, forever mourning her son who died in Vietnam. Gloria is Claire's friend who has also lost sons in the war and wakes up every day to the violence of the Bronx city projects. Soloman is a judge, Claire's husband, who has lost his idealism as he deals with the criminals in his courtroom and tries to please the bureaucracy he is a part of. And then there is Lara, attempting to rebuild her life after a tragedy forces her to look more closely at herself. The book deals with two very powerful themes. One theme is that things occur by utter chance. "Things happen. Things collide". (p.133) There is also the idea that things might happen for a reason. "We have all heard of these things before. The love letter arriving as the teacup falls. The guitar striking up as the last breath sounds out. I don't attribute it to God or to sentiment. Perhaps it's chance. Or perhaps chance is just another way to try to convince ourselves that we are valuable." (p68) In this novel, the inter-connectedness of people and events is played out in a way that could be interpreted as either eerie, spiritual, or just plain chance. New York is there, always, in the background. It is a city of crime, love, hate, justice, peace, war and beauty. The city is person