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Aug 28, 2011

Maggie rated it:

For a book that's solely supposed to be about characters....I thought all of these characters were amazingly one-dimensional. The self-sacrificing wanna-be priest? The smarter-than-she-looks hooker? The rich lonely Park Ave housewife? Nothing unique or original in there.
Reading it didn't suck really hard, because it's an easy enough read, and there are little splotches of nice writing and insight throughout....but all in all, I didn't get it.
I also didn't get the whole "NYC in More...

7 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Kemper rated it:

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.

It’s either another day in New York, or it’s the shittiest circus ever. More...

2 comments like (28 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2011

Eric rated it:

This really may be the first truly profound novel to connect itself with September 11, 2001 and New York City, if only because it does so in such an understated, oblique, and poetically suggestive way. It's also a novel that may take over a hundred pages to truly capture your imagination, but once it does, and once the connective tissue of the disparate group of characters starts to reveal itself, the novel attains a kind of hypnotic and edgy grace for its duration. So richly and deeply are McCa More...

0 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2012

Elisa rated it:

L'antidoto a "Chiedi alla polvere"

Separa le tende, apre il triangolo, solleva appena il telaio, avverte un alito di vento sulla pelle: cenere e polvere e luce scacciano l'oscurità dalle cose. [...] Avanziamo incespicando, portiamo un po' di rumore nel silenzio, troviamo in altri di che andare avanti. E' quasi abbastanza.

Colum McCann mi ha fatto sentire a casa. La casa: quel posto in cui puoi rifugiarti, rinchiuderti a rinnegare il mondo intero e un attimo dop More...

7 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2011

Deborah rated it:

Life is full of unexpected synchronicities. The kinds of things that occasionally make you feel that you are connected to a greater web of being, a little sign to let you know that you are not in this alone. Two days before I picked up Colum McCann's extraordinary novel "Let The Great World Spin," I watched the equally extraordinary documentary "Man on Wire" for the second time. Philippe Petit, more angel than human, strung a cable across the Twin Towers in 1974 and performed More...

3 comments like (18 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2009

Catherine rated it:

New York City in 1974 was a run-down, uneasy place, trapped in a spiral of decay. Colum McCann's novel captures the spirit of the place and the people eloquently and movingly, the despair and isolation, the community and the hope. The stories of a disparate group of New Yorkers are linked together by Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the Twin Towers: a monk working among prostitutes in the Bronx; his brother, newly arrived from Dublin; one of the prositutes; a Park Avenue matron (Claire More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Maggi rated it:

When I began this book, I was unaware that a central motif is Phillipe Petit's tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Centers, but I could not have been happier when I realized this, as it is one of the most fascinating acts by a human being ever. I loved most of this book, which is a series of interconnected characters' stories, but would have preferred McCann had stayed with the early characters; I didn't find the later characters anywhere near as compelling. A self-sacrificing More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 15, 2010

George rated it:

SURPRISING. LUMINESCENT. ENGROSSING.

Despite depressing themes; in gratitude of lambent prose that sparkles and twinkles across the page, Colum McCann’s, ‘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. I’m 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 b More...

3 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2009

Linda rated it:

A unique tale that intertwines the lives of several persons that live in New York in 1974.

What a facinating nway to write a book. One chapter you are listening to a womens club who meets because they have lost children...they see/hear of a man walking a tight rope between the Twin Towers. This distracts them from their purpose of the meeting to relieve them of the grief nestled and nurtured insde them. They get back on track to discuss the losses in their lives, still wondering if More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2011

Kristen rated it:

My dear friend Russell places this book in his Top 50 books of all time (this is an example of one of the many reasons why I love Russell -- he doesn't have a Top 5 or Top 10 book list, he has a Top 50!), and I think I would have to do the same. It's a beautifully written book that highlights the lives of a dozen or so characters whose stories are interrelated and interwoven with one another around one single event -- Philippe Petit's historic tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. But More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 16, 2011

Lillian rated it:

I recently watched the documentary, Man on a Wire, which chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York City. This novel zooms in on the lives of a few of the thousands of anonymous people who stared in awe at the tiny man-dot moving back and forth on a wire 110 stories in the air. Not all of the characters saw that moment, but each feels its influence. Father John Corrigan, who has an unorthodox ministry to girls who walk the streets, is bringing one of t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2011

Michele rated it:

"There Are So Many Stories To Be Told"
Let The Great World Spin was a book club selection, which was enjoyed by all who attended, and it prompted a lively, intelligent discussion. The story is based on the lives of eleven characters on the day in 1974 when French funambulist, Philippe Petit, danced across a wire (tightrope) secured between the new twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York. It is a well-written, literary masterpiece with highly believable, three-dimensional More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2010

Tung rated it:

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 happe More...

6 comments like (41 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

Brian rated it:

Once in awhile you come across a book, that due to some circumstance speaks to you a little louder and clearer than the others. This for me was that book. A novel created from a series of interwoven stories (each chapter depicts another character in the narrative,) it all surrounds the actual tight rope walk between the two towers at the World Trade Center, while the building was being finished in the early 1970s.(One of the first acts of gorilla art in the US.) The writing (as I would expect fr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 09, 2011

Sajda rated it:

Simply put, this is a beauty of a book.

When I first started reading it, I was a bit overwhelmed--too many characters, places and situations for me to keep track of. The book tends to jump from place to place, which can be a bit jarring for any reader. However, the author cleverly weaves all of the stories and characters together in the end. The stories are little moments of life really; fragments of beauty sewn together to create a masterpiece.

The language and style use More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Oscar rated it:

El 7 de agosto de 1974, las personas más cercanas al World Trade Center pudieron observar un hecho asombroso e increíble: había un hombre en la cornisa de una de las Torres Gemelas. Por un momento, cuando se disponía a dar un paso adelante, parecía que se iba a tirar al vacío, pero no era así: el hombre estaba caminando sobre un cable que unía las dos torres, a 110 pisos de altura, a 400 metros de altura. A esa distancia era como si estuviese volando. Hace poco he vuelto a ver la película docume More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2010

Mary Helene rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2011

Joan rated it:

This is the book for Debra Ratner's novel course, where we read a novel each term slowly, with much discussion. I had tried to read this book on my own, but it was a library book and so demanded speed, and I just couldn't get into it. In the class (second session today) I'm enjoying it. Writing is amazing; suspense building.

The second chapter, "Miro, Miro, on the Wall," is narrated from the point of view of a woman, Claire Soderberg, and alternates between her account of exte More...

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Nate rated it:

I wanted to remember some of the lines from this book so I wrote them in my journal. I haven't read anything in a while that has made me ache. The loss in this book and the admiration the narrators have for the central figure is overwhelming as you read it. The author has obviously lost someone special and has captured that loss on paper. Just gorgeously written, especially the chapters titled Miro, Miro on the Wall and Centavos.

SPOILERS AHOY AHOY

To describe this book wo More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 06, 2010

Matt rated it:

"Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting."
-- Karl Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are almost ten years old, and yet, the wound is still very raw (for those not directly involved, I mean; for those that were there, the wound is forever). Books and films that have dared touch the subject have done so in one of two ways: with near-stultifying decorum and gravity, which makes art into some kind of vague, More...

10 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

Carl rated it:

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 disjointed, hopping from one unfinished vignette to another, the connections being too loose or too forced for me to enjoy. The characters were too one-dimensional. The ending seemed pretty lame to me as well--the slacker brother becomes a rich software mogul married to the avant-garde artiste whose former husband (and whatever happened to More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Jennie rated it:

So, I'm not particularly fond of New York. I really dislike cities--they're full of traffic, noise, mean people and concrete. Not only does New York have a lot of these characteristics, but it takes pride in them. I enjoy a good museum or a nice show, but I wish I didn't have to switch into fight-or-flight mode to arrive there safely. Whenever I visit, I end up exhausted and convinced that the world would be a better place if humanity ceased to exist.

I'm also not particularly fon More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2010

Beth Anne rated it:

i really liked this book. there were two or three parts/chapters that i didn't love...but overall, it was an amazing character study...showing so many people living such different lives, but at the same time each and every character was living life and just surviving.

it certainly wasn't a joyous book...not really happy in any way...but not really sad either. it left me feeling lonely, really. what i liked most about the novel is that it was really just a book of how everyone can b More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Joe rated it:

This one never quite got off the page for me. Couple of reasons why: 1) The structure of the book--loosely connected novellas and stories--keeps the reader from getting to know any of the characters, constantly introducing new ones just when you get interested in the last, and totally abandoning a few who clearly have a lot more to say. 2) The component parts of the whole felt workshoppy--craft-wise, they're all a little too on the noise, and rarely did McCann offer any surprises to ameliorate h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 26, 2011

Clifford rated it:

Let the Great World Spin was such a whirlwind of sadness and hope that it could only be described as life. It had echoes of East of Eden to me with its ability to fill tragedy with such unexplainable hope. I’m left with a sense of loneliness, isolation, hope, and courage. I feel oddly better equipped for life and yet I don’t know what equipment I have been offered. As I consider the metaphor of the tightrope walker I am compelled to draw a series of life parallels. To borrow Morrie Shwartz (Tues More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Leigh rated it:

Fun read, well-written, good use of the "strangers with interconnected lives" plot device that seems to be popping up all over the place recently. I'm a little over the "Philip Petit" trope (the high-wire guy in the 70s that walked between the two towers) or maybe I just thought McGann could have done something more interesting with that act since it becomes the connective thread through all the stories. Thought the whole thing (form, plot devices, substance of stories) felt More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2011

sab rated it:

Recommended by Aunt Sandy and I loved it. Well crafted, thought provoking and poignant, I absolutely loved getting to know a character and then learning of their developments later through another character's perspective. So many gut wrenching moments and people and Colum McCann allowed me to feel for each one of them (of course, some more than others!) I am awed by McCann's pacing and subtleties and impressed that he made me so sympathetic to Corrigan and his desperate inner turmoil. (The mor More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 10, 2010

Jessica rated it:

i have no, *no* idea how this guy wrote the characters in this book, but each is unique and so human. and as sara said, heroic. i saw in the end why this is a 9/11 book, though it wasn't obvious, but i hesitate to explain or i might give something away. there were a few parts that did not grab me, but they are barely worth mentioning - interestingly though, they were those portions that had to do in some way with the tightrope walker himself. what happens on the ground is just so much more in More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2010

Mariposa rated it:

Ooh, what beautiful language. Some of the stories we easier for the author to tell than others, but I was taken in by the book as a whole, and by how the stories were woven together. Delicious.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Lotte rated it:

Dejlig bog, som jeg gerne vil anbefale videre. Og så tager den jo udgangspunkt i en af de begivenheder, som jeg synes er helt fantastisk - nemlig "Man on wire" i New York i 70'erne (var det 72?). Manden, der simpelthen spændte en line mellem de de to Twin Towers og dansede rundt derude i næsten en time. Jeg har set dokumentaren to gange, den kan også anbefales.

Men bogen handler altså ikke om denne begivenhed - den bliver kun brugt som afsæt til de andre historier, der på foru More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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