Let the Great World Spin

Tutto secondo le aspettative, puntualità nella consegna, congruenza articolo...insomma tutto bene (come al solito...)

A fabulous book of a great writer. I am still in the process of reading. It's addictive. Interesting, of great human and artistic value. Review will follow.

I was disappointed with the product received. It seems to be an older book and not a new one. It has a "Buy 1 Get 1" sticker on it and the back cover is slightly damaged. I had to make sure that I had not opted for a used book. This is the first time something like this has happened and hopefully this will be the last.

Better described as a literary work of art than a novel, Let The Great World Spin, is brilliant and profound -- and well-deserving of its National Book Award. As life is episodic, so are the interconnected stories of a diverse cast of characters that populate this novel. An Irish Catholic monk. An African-American hooker, and her heroin-addicted daughter. A wealthy socialite named Claire grieving the loss of her son in Vietnam. A Jewish judge. Computer geeks. A guy who photographs graffiti. The novel revolves around the connections -- often in unexpected ways -- of these characters with the common thread of Philippe Petit's daring tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in August, 1974.Part of the wonder of the novel is the verisimilitude with which McCann renders these characters. Endowed by their creator with beautiful, elegant, but clearly delineated voices, these New Yorkers practically spring off the page. They are so real, themselves so human. And through them, McCann offers a simple road map for being human: Connect. Love. Hope.But the novel isn't just about the interconnectedness of people; it's about connecting with a moment, a memory, an image. As the broke-down hooker Tillie wastes away in jail, she remembers a week spent at an expensive hotel with a trick who only wanted to talk with her, respected her, practically loved her. She relies on that memory to help her navigate the vicious downward spiral of her life. Gloria, a poor black woman, who befriends the grieving mother Claire based on their shared experience of losing children to the Vietnam War, explains this idea as clearly as the English language could render it: "I guess you live inside a moment for years, move with it and feel it grow, and it sends out roots until it touches everything in sight."This novel is also a portrait of New York City. Spanning races and classes, it's a tribute to the city's diversity, richness and history. As McCann tells us through one of his characters, "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." And then later, "(The tightrope walker) had made himself a statue, but a perfect New York one, a temporary one, up in the air, high above the city. A statue that had no regard for the past." For that reason, Petit's walk was a "stroke of genius."And though 9/11 is never mentioned explicitly, it's clearly the undercurrent for and possibly the impetus of this novel. As people connected based on the novelty and shared experience of Petit's walk, so also did they connect on the shared and horrific experience of the terrorist attacks on the most horrific day in American history. McCann, seemingly randomly at the time, includes a photo of "a man high in the air while a plane disappears, it seems, into the edge of the building." The photo's weird trick of perspective didn't mean anything particularly interesting until 27 years after it was taken. Now, looking at it, and contemplating its prescience, you can't help but shudder.This is a novel that I cannot leave; it really affected me. As I've written this, I've gone back and reread several of McCann's elegant passages. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for McCann, it only takes 95 or so. He conveys images, emotions, memories in words and phrases that are just so precise. For example: "She had the bluest eyes, they looked like small drops of September sky." How many times have you read novelists who totally flub an eye-description analogy? Not McCann -- it's perfect, and that's just one of hundreds of examples throughout the novel. I can't recommend it more highly. Please read it. Please.

In 1974 Phillipe Petite strung a wire between the Twin Towers and for a couple of hours walked in the air between them. The act reverberated through history as the greatest piece of art history ever conceived and forms the vignette around which this complex novel revolves.The image of the man on the wire haunts the novel, as the characters talk about him, watch him, try him, and are inspired by him.Corrigan, a monk, torn between the love of a woman and the love of God. Jazzlyn and Tillie, the mother and daughter hookers, who he allows to use his toilet. Claire and her husband, Solomon, grieving for the death of their son in Vietnam. This is an ensemble piece, built up from a range of people who are all affected, directly or indirectly, by Petite's stunt.The book is so beautifully written, so pitch perfect, that it is a joy to read. The characters voices, all distinct, but joined by a weariness, express real emotion and despite the inherent sadness of the subject matter are exhilarating.Although the stories interconnect, often leading one into another or events from one having repercussions in one much later, the story never feels forced or searching for a tidy solution. Only Fernando, the thirteen year photographer seems incongruous and unneccessary, everything else has it's place and purpose.It was would be easy to call this a 9/11 novel, but whilst the act is present in the future of the Towers, this is a celebration of a willful and artistic piece of terrorism, not a destructive one.This is one of the best books I have read this year, if not the best. I cannot recommend it highly enough.