Let the Great World Spin

Title: Let the Great World Spin

Author: Colum McCann

Pages: 351

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The book is a collection of interconnected stories about people and events from one August day in New York City in 1974.  On this day a man mysteriously begins tight-rope walking on a cable strung between the two newly completed, 110 story World Trade Center Towers.  Nobody knows who this man is, or how he was able to string the cable from tower to tower, or even gain access to the roofs of the towers.  The tightrope walker captivated the people below, once they started noticing the ant sized exhibitionist from the ground below.  All the while, there are other people living their daily lives including a group of prostitutes in the Bronx, a young Irish Monk who lives among them, a gathering of mothers in a Park Avenue apartment who mourn the passing of their sons in Vietnam, a judge who wants to be remembered, and a young artist and her boyfriend who are involved in a hit and run while high on drugs.

My Review: I had a hard time following this story for the first few chapters, once I was able to keep track of the different characters I really started enjoying this book.  Rather than having one single protagonist, instead there is the event that loosely ties everybody together (i.e. the tight-rope walking between the World Trade Center towers). I'm always intrigued that everybody has a story to tell and this book explores that concept in a really interesting way.  The book itself is a little more artsy or allegorical than I usually like, but I still found it enjoyable.