RollnSmoke Reviews: LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN by Colum McCann (Random House, 2010)

Winner of the National Book Award, this novel is Colum McCann’s emotional response to the devastation of the 9/11 attacks. He achieves resolve, hope and rebuilding by harkening back to New York City as it was in 1974 when Viet Nam was raging, art was flourishing, liberation theology was emerging and technology was quickly developing. The novel reads like a thick braid of short stories that each describes different lives of average New Yorkers – hookers in The Bronx, a soul-searching man at odds with his vows to The Order, drug-addicted artists from The Village, a therapy group of grieving war mothers, an 18-year old computer hack prodigy, a grandmother in jail, a judge, a lover. This intricate maze of people – whose ordinary days are charged with life by the hand of an awesomely skilled writer -- are joined together the day Phillipe Petit walks a tightrope wire between the iconic World Trade Center Towers on August 7, 1974. A stunning, broad portrait of New York City, McCann’s seventh novel, rooted in belief and grief, love and healing, is a smashing, impossible-to-put-down read (9.5/10).