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 (Tuesdays with Morrie), I see a tension of opposites involved in Petite’s attempt to walk the wire- recklessness and hypervigilence, freedom and extreme discipline, bravado and considerable humility, just to name a few. And it is in these dichotomous states that I am left wondering if I have been given some glimpse into what life is about. Glad I read it .