Present Out Of Books Let the Great World Spin
| Title | : | Let the Great World Spin |
| Author | : | Colum McCann |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 351 pages |
| Published | : | June 23rd 2009 by Random House (first published June 16th 2009) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. New York. Book Club. Contemporary. Novels. Literary Fiction |
Colum McCann
Hardcover | Pages: 351 pages Rating: 3.95 | 89010 Users | 8907 Reviews
Narration In Favor Of Books Let the Great World Spin
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.Describe Books Toward Let the Great World Spin
| Original Title: | Let the Great World Spin |
| ISBN: | 1400063736 (ISBN13: 9781400063734) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Philippe Petit |
| Setting: | New York City, New York(United States) Bronx, New York City, New York(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award for Fiction (2009), Ambassador Book Award for Fiction (2010), NAIBA Book of the Year for Fiction (2010), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2009), International Dublin Literary Award (2011) |
Rating Out Of Books Let the Great World Spin
Ratings: 3.95 From 89010 Users | 8907 ReviewsCommentary Out Of Books Let the Great World Spin
A tightrope walker about to pull off one of the biggest stunts ever performed. A committed priest too busy looking out for the downtrodden to take care of himself. A pair of prostitutes who are also mother and daughter. A rich woman crippled by grief and her stoic judge husband. A couple of artists who fled the New York night life. Computer hackers. A brutal car wreck. Slums. Penthouses. Robbery. Charity. Its either another day in New York, or its the shittiest circus ever.In 1974, a FrenchI had a difficult time getting into this book but in the end I am glad I persevered. It is really a story about New York City in 1974 centered around Phillippe Petit's historic tight rope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center. But the story itself trancends all that and takes us into the lives of some of the people whose days are coloured by this incredible feat and what unfolds is a powerful,complex tale of life, love, loss and redemption. I don't think I realized just how
How?How did he do it?How did he get the wire across?That's the question that intrigues those who saw or heard of Philippe Petit's daring tightrope walk on August 7, 1974. Not who, not why. How.How he bridged the unbridgeable, the chasm between those two monolithic structures. Spider-like, sending a thread that looks as delicate as silk from afar, but is strong enough to carry a man, a thread that connects the two separate giants.This took a wee while to work its magic. It is oblique, (which I
In my classification system, there are books that are readers books (they tell an engaging story); there are books that are writers books (they are creative in their prose and technically sound); and then there are GREAT books that tell a good story through solid prose. Let the Great World Spin (the 2009 National Book Award winner) is such a book. The book shares the lives of seemingly random New Yorkers in 1974, and how their lives intertwine. At the surface, they seem connected by what happens
Have you ever heard Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'? That first low note of the clarinet that increasingly vibrates on the ground before it jumps high, high to land with a soft boom of drums and a smooth backdrop of horns, a building for the clarinet to continue on with trills and soars, till finally the zenith is reached and the horn sounds its own quavering, the robust tone completing that architecture first sounded by the leaping thrills of the lone clarinet.I am hardly the first to see this
Further update:Apparently there is an ongoing audience for this review, based on recent comments, and I might have hurt their reading pleasure "cuz" I didn't indicate there were SPOILERS!! Heck, I was just trying to save folks some precious reading time; doubt reading this will affect your like or dislike of the book. But watch for the WARNINGS.UPDATE.After some colleagues urged me to try it again, I plowed on, finished it, and am willing to move it up to 3 stars. Well written, but still too
SURPRISING. LUMINESCENT. ENGROSSING.Despite depressing themes; in gratitude of lambent prose that sparkles and twinkles across the page, Colum McCanns, Let the Great World Spin is a joy to read. NOBODY FALLS HALFWAY (Pg. 149 -- B&N Digital Edition)After reading the prologue I thought, Wow. Im going to like this novel. By page fifty-five or so, though, I was ready to give it two stars and lament how I should have known better than to read a book by anyone with Mc in their name. Native-born
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