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This Side of Brightness
by
Colum McCann (Goodreads Author)
At the turn of the century, Nathan Walker comes to New York City to take the most dangerous job in the country. A sandhog, he burrows beneath the East River, digging the tunnel that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In the bowels of the riverbed, the sandhogs—black, white, Irish, Italian—dig together, the darkness erasing all differences. Above ground, tho...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
January 1st 2003
by Picador
(first published April 15th 1998)
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Rating: 3.75* of five
How delightful it is to go back and fill in the high spots in a favorite author's early career. This book, published in 1998, was the third published book by McCann, and showed that his command of language was equal to his command of storytelling. He's a winner of the National Book Award now, but his earlier books don't disappoint in any way. (Well, Songdogs disappointed me, but not severely.)
The evocation of the sandhog life in early 20th-century New Yor...more
How delightful it is to go back and fill in the high spots in a favorite author's early career. This book, published in 1998, was the third published book by McCann, and showed that his command of language was equal to his command of storytelling. He's a winner of the National Book Award now, but his earlier books don't disappoint in any way. (Well, Songdogs disappointed me, but not severely.)
The evocation of the sandhog life in early 20th-century New Yor...more
I scoff when I hear people say, "I wish I had time to read!" My reading time is at 5:30 in the morning, when I am doing my cardio, rocking out to my music, and trying to balance my book open on those cheap little plastic book "thingys". I have sensed a pattern recently when I listen to an old song from my Ipod and suddenly I am am shot back into a book I read three months, six months, or even two years ago.
When I purchase a new song, I will often open up my Ipod and...more
When I purchase a new song, I will often open up my Ipod and...more
McCann’s third book and second novel, This Side of Brightness has a number of things in common with McCann’s most recent novel, the prize winning Let the Great World Spin. Both novels are set in New York; both involve issues of race, class, and immigration; and both novels are testimonies to the fragility and resilience of the human condition. Some people get crushed by circumstance and choice in McCann’s novels and others endure, struggling on, reclaiming hope from ruin’s ashes.
Thi...more
Thi...more
I'm still trying to wrap my head around how McCann can take stories about "ordinary" people and make them so interesting that I can't stop thinking about the characters long after I'm done with the book. Also how he, as an Irish man, can get away with writing African-American characters. And how much research he must have done, into tunnel diggers, mole people and everything in between. Throw in his remarkable use of language, with lines that make me want to break my "no writin...more
This Side of Brightness is two stories tied into one. One story begins in the early 20th century with the digging of tunnels for the New York subway involving a set of sandhogs, the men who are digging the tunnels, and the next chapter occurs in the later 1990s focusing on people who live underground in the tunnels. The chapters go back and forth between the two time frames, finally revealing how they are connected. This Side of Brightness starts with a tragedy- several men are sucked up through...more
this is an amazing book that i can pick up and read a hundred times. the dual generations, the factual historical record, all of it is so vibrant and beautiful. the language of Colum McCann is spectacular, and every time i read it, i get so engulfed, i can't put it down. in fact, i may pick it up again tonight!!!
So yes, i picked it up again, and with my pen, underlined things i hadn't noticed before. this is such an amazing book with such language that i had to pull out the dicti...more
So yes, i picked it up again, and with my pen, underlined things i hadn't noticed before. this is such an amazing book with such language that i had to pull out the dicti...more
TSOB is just my favorite book. Has been since 2003. If you like books about NYC where the city itself becomes a character, read this. Also good for those of you who love underground/alternative historical narratives (both fig and lit).
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Nathan Walker is a sandhog, a man who has the dangerous job of digging tunnels for the New York Subway in the early 1900s. Treefrog used to work on the extreme opposite — high in the sky building skyscrapers — before his descent into homelessness brought him to live in the same tunnels that Nathan helped build.
Colum McCann tells the parallel story of two men: one who works digging the tunnels for the New York subway in the 1900s, and the other a homeless man who lives in these tunnels....more
Colum McCann tells the parallel story of two men: one who works digging the tunnels for the New York subway in the 1900s, and the other a homeless man who lives in these tunnels....more
This is a 'wow' of a book. Colum is a great wordsmith.
This tale has two parts, which meet towards the end, in that one part follows the events associated with an incident in the early 1900s where four men, part of a large crew, are sucked through a 'portal' whilst digging a train tunnel under the Hudson River. Three of these men survive in that they surface above in the Hudson River, one is never found. So, half of the tale follows the saga of what happened to one of these men in ...more
This tale has two parts, which meet towards the end, in that one part follows the events associated with an incident in the early 1900s where four men, part of a large crew, are sucked through a 'portal' whilst digging a train tunnel under the Hudson River. Three of these men survive in that they surface above in the Hudson River, one is never found. So, half of the tale follows the saga of what happened to one of these men in ...more
I just finished this one and its as good as the first I read by McCann. It has a dual narrative- one by a man who worked digging the tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn during the early part of the century- around 1915, and the other by a man who lives in the tunnels above the subway around the time of the second world war. Not usually a subject matter I would pick, but the writing is so good I finished it in two days! I'm looking forward to finding his other two books. It seems like a lot...more
SUMMER READING CLUB: "This novel takes us underground into the subway tunnels and into the lives of the sandhogs who built them and into the lives of people of the homeless community who now reside in them. Both stories,told in an alternating fashion, come together in one as the book nears its end.
It is an interesting glimpse into both ways of life and into the tunnels themselves. There are so many sections no longer used in the subway system that even though this is a work of fic...more
It is an interesting glimpse into both ways of life and into the tunnels themselves. There are so many sections no longer used in the subway system that even though this is a work of fic...more
Wow! This is my first experience with anything by Colum McCann. His style of writing was enjoyable to read. More often than not, I usually forget the names of the characters when I try to recall them months later. But I don't think I will ever forget Treefrog, Angela, Nathan Walker, or Eleanor. Besides Treefrog and his peculiar behavior, Angela was one of my favorite people in the book. "Treefy you stink!!" Boy was she always blunt and to the point.
Soooooo...now I have a question...more
Soooooo...now I have a question...more
After I returned from my first trip to New York, anything related to New York caught my eye, including this novel. It's the first half of the 20th century and someone has to dig the underground tunnel that will shuttle trains between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The novel describes how taking on the country's most dangerous job affects the lives of everyone involved over a period of seven decades. Amongst the tragady, the author, Colum McCann, drops in light touches of humor with remarks about alegat...more
I started off really enjoying this book and getting into the historical aspect behind the building of the underground train tunnels of New York. Unfortunately as the book went on it became depressingly easy to see where it was all going - all portents were delivered with an increasingly unsubtle sledgehammer. Therefore there were no surprises. Even though I had problems with Let the Great World Spin at least it had that going for it.
That's two books I've read by McCann now in whic...more
That's two books I've read by McCann now in whic...more
This Side of Brightness follows a catastrophic day during the digging of the tunnel that will connect Brooklyn and Manhattan under the East River and the repercussions that follow three generations of a family.
Nathan Walker is an African-American sandhog, digging that tunnel in 1916 New York City. His story is told in alternating chapters with the story of Treefrog, a homeless man living in the tunnels in 1991 New York City. Both stories continue in this alternating fashion until...more
Nathan Walker is an African-American sandhog, digging that tunnel in 1916 New York City. His story is told in alternating chapters with the story of Treefrog, a homeless man living in the tunnels in 1991 New York City. Both stories continue in this alternating fashion until...more
Colum McCann’s This Side of Brightness is the relentlessly depressing story of three generations of a New York city family. Nathan Walker is a “sandhog”, digging a subway tunnel under the East River, when he’s involved a terrible freak accident. His connection to the family of one of his fellow victims forms half of the novel; the other half concurrently tells the story of the not-quite-sane homeless manTreefrog, who lives up in a cave high above the train lines on the West Side of Manhattan, ...more
Tunnels, Tragedies .....Terrific Tales......
Nathan Walker and his family are at the center of this well constructed story of hope, despair, poverty, racism and ultimately the possibility of redemption.
McCann masterfully portrays a realistic story of the lives of the men known as "Sandhogs" and the dangerous nature of their job digging tunnels under New York City.
Mixing history with metaphor and vivid language, we are taken into the ...more
Nathan Walker and his family are at the center of this well constructed story of hope, despair, poverty, racism and ultimately the possibility of redemption.
McCann masterfully portrays a realistic story of the lives of the men known as "Sandhogs" and the dangerous nature of their job digging tunnels under New York City.
Mixing history with metaphor and vivid language, we are taken into the ...more
Gretchen
is currently reading it
So fare this is very interesting. I remember when they talked about this book at the residencies, they mentioned Colum going into the tunnels in NY to do research. He spins an interesting story, intertwining a current storyline of a homeless man and an older storyline of a man digging the tunnel under the river in NY. I only just started it, but so far am enjoying it.
Colum has interesting phrasing, which makes me (a normally fast reader), slow down and really read each word.
Colum has interesting phrasing, which makes me (a normally fast reader), slow down and really read each word.
If the second half of this book had been as good as the first, I'd have given it four or five stars. The world of the tunneling sandhogs is wonderful, but the Harlem of the later chapters doesn't have the same texture or flow. I also thought the crucial car-crash was a bit desperate and didn't fit with the rhythms of the book. But McCann's writing is lovely and he doesn't shy away from big subjects and multiple viewpoints. Recommended.
This story follows the life of a man named Walker who worked digging the tunnels for the New York subway system in the early 1900s. The book alternates between Walker's life and the life of another man whose connection to Walker remains a mystery until the end of the book. By the conclusion of the story, it had gone in a direction I had not anticipated and didn't love. I mostly enjoyed the book for the history behind it.
Reading this book (after being electrified by two of McCann's later novels) was like a step back. You can see kernels of greatness in it for sure; I got an idea of the trajectory that McCann took between this novel and Let the Great World Spin. But reading this, after seeing how much more he's capable of, was a bit of a letdown. Good story. Woven together tightly and coherently, and at times heartbreaking.
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There were 2 stories going on at the same time. One was in the past and one was in the present. They were intertwined. I liked the story and the characters from the past but didn't like the part about the homeless guy in the present as much. That part kind of dragged and was a bit boring to me. The other part was interesting, I wish that the whole book was about those characters.
I suppose I had high expectations for this New York tale, so I found it to be just ok. It follows the lives of a tunnel digger in the early 50s-super fascinating by the way-and a homeless man constructing his life in the tunnels in the present day. Some great lines, and hard chapters, and not too long, so worth it if you are looking to read about another side of NYC.
This book is about NYC, the sandhogs who build tunnels, the men who build skyscrapers and tragic depressing stories of four generations of one family. It is about interracial marriage, homelessness, and living in tunnels under New York rivers. Some of my bookclub members said that it is the best book they ever read. It was so depressing that I quit reading about 2/3 through.
I saw this author at the Astor Place Barnes and Nobles in Manhattan for a reading of this novel and was inspired to pick it up. McCann's perspective as a New Yorker by way of Ireland is threaded throughout the novel. Crossing several generations of New York, the plot traces a family from the days when they built the first underwater subway tunnel connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn to modern day times(1990s). I appreciated the historical references and the neighborhood landmarks I recognized, hav...more
I saw today that Colum McCann is a finalist this year for the National Book Award for Fiction for "Let the Great World Spin," and I had to add this book. I read it 10 years ago when I lived in New York City and it broke me down and then built me back up again. It shattered me and changed my life. It is easily one of the most magnificent books I've ever read.
I read this book six years ago when it first came out, and I still remember scenes from it clearly. It's fiction based on the building of the tunnels out of NYC, but more than that, it's about immigrants, the homeless, and a time and place. This is one of my all time favorite books.
Reread parts of it in 2010. Absolutely beautiful writing!
Reread parts of it in 2010. Absolutely beautiful writing!
Finished reading this morning, This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann. The second book of his I have read. Very similar in approach to the previous novel, in that it takes place in New York, and deals with the struggles of time and a generation of bigotry, hard work, and an even much harder life.......but as in all life, wrestles and ultimately experiences resurrection. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did, Let the Great World Spin.
A gritty novel about people living on the edges/underbelly of society and the indignities and tradgedies of their lives, some a circumstance of birth, some self inflicted. The author has created very believable characters and dialogs are well done. While it is a quick read it is not an easy one.
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Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness,""Dancer" and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers. His newest novel “Let the Great World Spin” will come out in 2009. His fiction has been published in 26 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and othe...more
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