Merry's Book Club
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“Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann
Most days it’s easy enough to condense the larger world into the daily commute. But sometimes, a single event impacts us in such a profound way that it opens the door for a wider look at humanity. We absorb personal stories that we would otherwise have overlooked, taking them on as part of our own history, joined together- unexpectedly. August 7, 1974, was such a day.
Colum McCann’s award winning 2009 novel illuminates a single event in New York City. On this particular day, high above the city streets, Philippe Petit attempts a tightrope crossing between the unfinished Twin Towers. Below, the city holds its collective breath as they watch him prance and wonders; will he make it to the other side?
Petit’s daring act is used as a tether throughout the book linking not only history, but the characters themselves. Corrigan, the conflicted Irish monk, Tilly a 38-year-old hooker and Clair, an upper-east side wife, carefully wrapped in memories of her dead son, are especially memorable in McCann’s fifth novel. The city itself becomes a character, alive with a panoply of voices from the day. An artist who has lost her footing in the world, a team of computer hackers from California, a brother searching for a lost connection ,and a young prostitute turning tricks beside her mother. Some glimpsed briefly and others so real you could know them, their lives brush up against one another as they try to make it to the other side. Their common bond, love and hope.
For most of the characters, their lives intersect with the event. As the book progresses, characters dip in and out of each other’s lives, seemingly unaware of their impact on one another. McCann threads them together seamlessly, and you are reminded over and over again, of the impact of a single life.
This is a novel to savour. The writing is poetic and it’s layers a gift you will treasure. Read it slowly if you can, and allow it to penetrate, the message is a good one. McCann credits Tennyson’s poem “Locksley Hall with the book’s title, but it’s the stories within that reassure us. Take the chance, they seem to say. The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.
