This novel isn’t exactly linear, but it’s mostly set in 1970s New York, centering around the tightrope walker (a fictionalized Phillippe Petit) who walked between the twin towers, juxtaposed with a fatal car crash on that same day. It’s about the people involved, directly and indirectly, with those events, and their connections to each other. It is very well-written and has a true sense of the place and time–I was actually quite surprised to learn that the author grew up in Ireland, and didn’t take up permanent residence in New York City until the 1990s, so well did he capture the specifics of the setting.  

Let the Great World Spin is a bit slow in parts–many characters, many digressions–and that’s part of its power, I think.  As in Ghosts of New York by Jim Lewis, there are no minor characters here, everyone intersecting (sometimes in ways they don’t understand–they haven’t all even met), everyone part of the tapestry of a great, sometimes heartbreaking, city.  There are probably more coincidences in the plot than are entirely believable, but somehow it works, and it’s an enjoyable, sometimes painful, and occasionally beautiful, read. Here’s New York with all its crime, and filth, and damaged people, and blighted places–but also here’s friendship, here’s hope, here’s resilience, and sometimes, miraculously, here’s love. It’s a response to the tragedy of September 11th, but it’s not about that tragedy–there’s some magic here that transcends it and defies gravity, like Phillipe Petit did those many years ago.

NOVEL: Let the Great World Spin

AUTHOR:  Colum McCann

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2009

IMAGE: book cover, Random House