Let the Great World Spin

This is a novel about New York full of “hey, how’d he do that?” moments. It begins with an on-the-ground description of Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk across the Twin Towers on August 7, 1974, stomach-plunging to read about, let alone see or --- big gulp --- do. Then Colum McCann moves into a novella about two brothers, and then into two seemingly unrelated short stories --- all taking place on or about the day of the walk. Other chapters accrue, touching upon the earlier narratives and revisiting key characters. A masterful exposition on everyday interconnectedness results, one that’s also an allegory for September 11th.

For that day is the book’s true subject, even as its characters and plot(s) remain firmly grounded in the mid-1970s. There is sexism and racism, of the casual and not-so casual varieties, and simple acts of cruelty. An Irish monk, a Latina nurse, a black mother-and-daughter team of prostitutes, a fragile white socialite, and a druggy white artist are some of the characters. Part of McCann's point is to show that nothing, especially not a city so multitudinous, is ever just one thing --- one adjective will never be enough to describe it, one day will never be enough to define it. The towers represent our tendency to be monolithic about the city, to make seemingly indisputable claims that go something like "New York is . . . " The figure of tiny Petit walking between the wires represents us, all of us, doing our best in the shadow of tall, tall buildings.

"'New York," one character sighs. "'All these people. Did you ever wonder what keeps us going?'" No one can believe what’s happened: a man walked across the towers! On a wire! The event becomes "[o]ne of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sense of the slew of ordinary days." People die as new families and relationships are born. Years later, in a different context, another character answers the question of the first: beauty keeps us going . . . the image of a man on the wire, an unexpected friendship, a certain slant of light, novels such as these, about us, about the city.