Petit himself even gets a few chapters, conjuring an image of what he might have been like in his youth, and drawing us into his prep in the build up to that first step out over the edge. Taking the day Petit walked a line between the Twin Towers, August 7th 1974, as not a focal point but a binding point in the backdrop, McCann moves back and forth between his characters, giving us more about their backstories and drawing us through New York’s pulsing heart as their stories unfold beneath Petit. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann is a bold and vibrant novel exploring the lives of eight very different main characters, whose storylines weave and collide in various ways as tightrope artist Philippe Petit walks the New York skies above their heads. The man above was a word they seemed to know, though they had not heard it before. The watchers below pulled in their breath all at once. Pick up Let the Great World Spin for yourself here. McCann’s Let the Great World Spin is a surprisingly quick read, as well - ideal for when you really want to get lost in a book for a time. The prose keeps you on your toes, particularly from section to section, while still being almost poetic. I’m quite glad I kept going with the book. Luckily, the details are not so anxiety inducing that I couldn’t keep going.
I thought the whole thing would be about a tightrope walker. The book actually opens with this, but I knew so little about Petit that I almost put the book down.
Ciaran stays with his brother and finds it difficult to accept both his brother’s living situation and his religion.īesides the Corrigan brothers, McCann’s book circles around Philippe Petit, a performer who managed to string a tightrope between the Twin Towers in Manhattan and perform a harrowing tightrope walk in 1974.
Ciaran follows his brother to New York after being injured in an IRA attack in Dublin. Corrigan, a Jesuit monk, finds himself in the Bronx, befriending a circle of prostitutes. Overall, Let the Great world Spin centers on two Irish brothers, Ciaran Corrigan and his younger brother, who simply goes by Corrigan. In the end, I enjoyed the book’s format, but I was definitely confused at first. Each book focuses on a different group of characters, each running in different, parallel social circles. Let the Great World Spin is broken up into a handful of “books,” which are then subdivided into chapters.
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