Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCannBack-of-the-book blurb: 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 a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in this intricate portrait of a city and its people. Weaving together seemingly disparate lives, we hear the of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” This is America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence.
She is Too Fond of Books’ review: Is Let the Great World Spin a lesson in how much New York, and the world, have changed in forty years? Or does the bottom line have more to do with repetition, with similarities? One of the characters in the novel addresses a question very similar to what I wondered as I read this 2009 National Book Award Winner for fiction:
He had a theory about it. It happened, and re-happened, because it was a city uninterested in history. Strange things occurred precisely because there was no necessary regard for the past. The city lived in a sort of everyday present. …
New York kept going forward precisely because it didn’t give a good goddamn about what it had left behind. It was like the city that Lot left, and it would dissolve if it ever began looking backward over its own shoulder. Two pillars of salt. Long Island and New Jersey.
Chapters move – abruptly at first - from one character, social sphere, and location to the next. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the writing, and for the characters – and their stories – to get a hold of me; but, I was hooked and rolling along by about page 75.
The setting, New York in August 1974, is crucial to the novel. Near the end of US involvement in Vietnam, the stage is set for political references: anti-Vietnam sentiment and the resignation of Richard Nixon. The World Trade Center towers are not yet completed; it is here that the central story, the glue that ties the other narratives together, takes place. On the morning of August 7, Philippe Petit walks on a tightrope strung between the Twin Towers.
The novel tells the stories of a group of prostitutes living near the Major Deegan Expressway, a religious man from Ireland in the projects of the Bronx, a group of women who have lost sons in Vietnam, and an artist from a WASPy Midwestern family, among others.
McCann varies the perspectives, and even the points of view, which makes for an interesting read. Some chapters are heavy with dialogue, quickening the pace and sharing the emotions of the speakers. We learn the various background stories, as well as what the characters were doing on and around August 7, 1974. The central story about the funambulist (there’s a great new-to-me word!) brings these disparate threads together.
McCann takes us to the stuntman’s training ground in upstate New York, and gives us a sense of the wild determination which would allow him to attempt this feat:
Once, during a thunderstorm, he rode the wire as if it were a surfboard. He loosened the guy cables so the wire was more reckless than ever. The waves the sway created were three feet high, brutal, erratic, side to side, up and down. Wind and rain all around him. The balancing pole touched against the tip of the grass, but never the ground. He laughed into the teeth of the wind.
As I indicated earlier, I did enjoy and admire McCann’s writing, but it didn’t win me over from the very first page. There were some inconsistencies that bothered me: a few scenes describe plastic bags caught on razor wire or dancing on the wind in alleyways; I didn’t remember plastic grocery bags being so prevalent until the mid- to late-80s. Wikipedia backed me up. Maybe artistic license on McCann’s part, but it was enough to take me out of the novel and on to Google (I’m funny that way; I recently read a novel which I’d give 5 stars to – if I rated my reviews – and experienced the same distraction trying to translate the fictional Cape Cod setting into a real town). If you were born after 1980 you might not blink at the description of the plastic bag ballet, but it stopped this reader in her tracks.
Although I’m glad I read Let the Great World Spin; the dense prose aren’t for everyone, and I’m not sure how much mainstream book group appeal it has. The paperback edition I read does have a very nice Reader’s Circle supplement with a discussion guide and extended author interview.
About the author: Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short fiction and five previously published novels. He was born near Dublin in 1965, emigrating to the US in the early 80s. He now lives with his wife and three children in Manhattan, and teaches at Hunter College. A full bio appears on his website.
I read and reviewed Let the Great World Spin as part of an online promotion with TLC Book Tours. To read other opinions and insights on the book, visit these blogs:
- Monday, May 3rd: Stephanie’s Written Word
- Tuesday, May 4th: S. Krishna’s Blog
- Wednesday, May 5th: The Literate Housewife Review
- Thursday, May 6th: Savvy Verse and Wit
- Friday, May 7th: Luxury Reading
- Monday, May 10th: She is Too Fond of Books
- Tuesday, May 11th: My Friend Amy
- Wednesday, May 12th: The Brain Lair
- Thursday, May 13th: Diary of an Eccentric
- Friday, May 14th: Lit and Life
- Monday, May 17th: Book Club Classics
- Tuesday, May 18th: Beth Fish Reads
- Wednesday, May 19th: Book Chatter
- Thursday, May 20th: Evening All Afternoon
- Friday, May 21st: Brunette on a Budget
- Monday, May 24th: Ready When You Are, CB
- Tuesday, May 25th: The New Dork Review of Books
- Wednesday, May 26th: Life and Times of a “New” New Yorker
- Thursday, May 27th: Nonsuch Book
- Friday, May 28th: Caribousmom
FTC disclosure: review copy provided by the publisher
Thanks for this excellent review!! This book does have a lot of promise. Especially with all the intricate character sketches!
Fabulous review. I was born in 1960, but I didn’t catch the plastic bag thing! I actually finished this book in April, but can’t post my review until the 28th! I loved the book on several different levels…but I agree that it is not necessarily a mainstream novel (like many of the prize winners).
I recently bought a copy of this book, and have been reading good things about it. It has been interesting to hear your take on it, and I can imagine that I might share some of the same reservations that you had about the book. Great and detailed review, I loved it!
I keep seeing this and it looks like the kind of book I would like, but that’s interesting about the plastic bags. Curious!
I didn’t catch the bag thing, but then again I was listening to this on audio. And on audio, it didn’t seem dense at all. Just emotional and impactful. It blew me away, like very few have. Which makes me REALLY sit and think about audios versus the printed word. I’m not sure I’ve figured it all out.
I caught the bag thing and it pulled me out of the book as well. But also, I took longer to get involved…I really didn’t get rolling in this book until page 100.
I really loved the word funambulist as well.
I didn’t catch the plastic bag thing, either when I read and listened to this. Started listening, got a little confused, and needed to take a closer look at the structure. Then I got into a pattern of listening in the car and reading at home. The audio added SO much to the experience! I can understand not getting hooked until 75 pages in, but once you are….
I probably wouldn’t have noticed the bag thing and I’m older than you are. I’m not crazy about dense prose, so this may not be for me.
I just started this and loved the prologue–I felt like I was seeing it like a movie scene. Can’t wait to keep reading it!
plastic bag ballet? wasnt that made passe as soon as the film American Beauty was released and then parodied?
~~
until about a week ago, i had never heard of this book ran across it on a shelf at a local store. interestingly enough, though the cover and title caught my attention, the book had absolutely no synopsis written on it. was a series of review snippets and awards. not much of a way to sell a book IMO.
promptly forgot to look it up when i got home.
will have to see if i can find it on the cheap after having read your review.
Thanks for your honest review Dawn. I have the audio version waiting for me at the library but won’t get it until the w./end.
Aths – yes, and even though McCann switches perspective, I felt I ‘knew’ a character when he returned.
Wendy – 1965 (no need to keep that cat in the bag!). Yes, one book group I’m in would enjoy discussing it, another neighborhood group has several members who I think wouldn’t finish it (I know, I shouldn’t predict/judge, forgive me!)
zibilee – my only reservation is in recommending it across the board with a statement like “great book group pick”. Although the climate of Vietnam vs. post-9/11 is very discussable (if so inclined)
Shelley – I’m so glad the plastic bags didn’t keep me from reading, but it did jolt me out of the book for a while.
Sandy – I haven’t figured out print vs. audio either. I love listening to audios (although it takes me about 2 weeks to get thru a book, since I don’t have much ‘alone’ time), but I often miss the ability to easily go back, mark a passage, etc. The advantage of audio is the narration, the emotion, the pacing. How do you feel?
Serena – we’re really on the same page about this one (yes, bad pun. but it’s the truth!)
JoAnn – yes, I’m glad I didn’t follow the ’50 page rule’ or I would have missed a good book! I remember that you were listening AND reading this one …
Kathy – Hmmm, maybe that wasn’t fair of me. The beginning few chapters were dense, that probably added to my issues with a rough start (some of the chapters flew!)
Lisa – I can imagine that prologue as film. This whole book would make a great movie (are you listening, Hollywood?!?)
erisian – It is odd that there’s no jacket copy, only blurbs. I do like the graphic though, the buildings stretched out that way remind me of the Great Wall of China for some reason. If you look closely, you can make out the funambulist walking the wire.
diane – Sandy endorses the audio – two thumbs up!
I liked this book, and appreciated a lot of it, but I can’t really say I loved it. I did love that quote about New York you used here, though.
There has been so much press about this book recently that I am waiting to read it. It is on my shelves ready to go but I will probably wait a year or two.
I didn’t think about the plastic bags; I remember them in the book, but I didn’t really think too hard on it. But you’re right, we only had paper for much of my childhood years!
I had a few minor issues with this book, too, but overall I loved it.
Dawn, please forgive my long delay in coming by to comment on your excellent review. I can’t believe you noticed that about the plastic bags because SO DID I! I didn’t Google it but I did talk to my mother about it, thinking her memory of 1974 would be a bit clearer than mine, and she backed me up. “Paper or plastic” wasn’t a question in 1974!
I’m reading the book now for book club and just finished the second story, with Claire and the grieving mothers. I had tears streaming down my face at one point and my kids were looking at me like I was nuts.
Thanks so much for being on the tour.
Your review was posted here on War Through the Generations.
At the heart of this book of interconnections is Frenchman Philippe Petit’s daring tightrope walk across the Twin Towers on August 1974, New York. Connected in simple ways to this act are stories of diverse characters and people. A delightful balancing act of a novel that grows on you. Read it.
[...] on the wind. This immediately annoyed me, and then the further I read, the more annoyed I became. Dawn at Too Fond of Books and Beth Fish Reads both point out that the prevalence of the plastic bag occurred much later than [...]
[...] Reviews: Caribousmom | The Literate Housewife Review | She Is Too Fond of Books | Beth Fish Reads | S. Krishna’s Books | My Friend Amy | Jenny’s Books [...]