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Let the Great World Spin: A Novel

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Let the Great World Spin: A Novel

(369 customer reviews)

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ISBN13: 9780812973990
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Description

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 bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.”

A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.

Product Details

Author:	Colum McCann
Paperback:	400 pages
Publisher:	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Publication Date:	December 02, 2009
Language:	English
ISBN:	0812973992
Product Length:	5.16 inches
Product Width:	0.83 inches
Product Height:	7.98 inches
Product Weight:	0.63 pounds
Package Length:	8.9 inches
Package Width:	6.0 inches
Package Height:	1.7 inches
Package Weight:	1.0 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 369 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.0

( 369 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

642 of 676 found the following review helpful:

Do "Things Arise Out of the Ashes of Chance" or are They Meant to Be? May 03, 2009 By Bonnie Brody "Book Lover and Knitter"
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 personified to contain just about every human emotion I can think of. The people are a part of this city and they, too, are a mixture of good and evil, beauty and ugliness. As McCann says in the book, people can be half good sometimes, a quarter bad at other times, but no one is perfect.

This book is near perfect. I found the first 25 pages a bit slow but don't let that stop you. This book is a treasure, one that opens up more and more with each page. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

122 of 133 found the following review helpful:

A Startling Portrait of NYC in the 1970s Jul 15, 2009 By B. A. Chaney
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.

58 of 61 found the following review helpful:

Highly Recommended Jul 26, 2009 By Mary O. Garm "mairzydoats"
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.

53 of 56 found the following review helpful:

More Style than substance Jun 06, 2010 By JoeV "Reader"
Let The Great World Spin was published last year to rave reviews. Descriptions included magical, sweeping, brilliant, poignant and the perfect New York novel. I am definitely out of step when it comes to current fiction because I missed the magic here - finding this book more style than substance.

The book is a set of vignettes chronicling a loosely connected set of Manhattanites in August of 1974. In the background are the Vietnam War, Nixon's resignation and Phillipe Petit- a man who stretched a cable between the World Trade Twin Towers - 103 stories up in the air - and went for a stroll - successfully.

Our cast includes two Irish brothers; one a catholic priest, who lives among and befriends a pack of heroin addicted prostitutes; a grieving mother who lost her son in the Vietnam War; and a young married couple trying to break into the NY art world in between cocaine binges. Not the most original or creative set of characters, but with a good story to guide them great novels are made. Unfortunately, and this is the biggest fault I had with Let The Great World Spin, the author doesn't tell us their stories - he explains them. Therefore the characters never became real to me - just their dialogue seemed surreal - and the narrative simply overwhelmed any and all of the underlying stories.

Think of watching a movie sitting next to someone who has seen it before and feels the need to keep whispering in your ear - detailing plot twists and characters' actions. At some point you simply want to yell, "Shut up!" I had the same experience/frustration reading this book, hoping - vainly - that the author would remove himself from the narrative. I know I'm in the minority here - but pass on this one.

65 of 75 found the following review helpful:

This Is One Of The Very Best Books I've Read In A Long Time. It Is Illuminating! May 18, 2009 By Marilyn Raisen
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 exactly what any reader would want to inherit from a novel. We have the understanding that man endures, indeed, he prevails. He has a soul and spirit. `Let The Great World Spin' allows the reader to recognize how inspiring and uplifting a book may be. McCann's gift is that he leaves the reader with the understanding that in the face of adversity, we have the ability to demonstrate courage, hope, compassion, and sacrifice in order to prevail. These are the qualitites that this reviewer believes connect mankind.

McCann is a majestic conductor whose symphonic work will capture the reader's attention, pierce his heart and reach his soul. `Let The Great World Spin' is a masterpiece. It deserves much praise and is most highly recommended reading!

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