Sometimes at the end of a day while washing my makeup off, I say to my reflection in the mirror, “This was a good day.” Other days, I hold myself up with my locked arms and stare into the mirror – not recognizing the old and tired face staring back at me. Some days I notice nothing, just the swirl of the day and an immediate desire to put this cleanliness task behind me. The days of our lives – twirling around and around.
Sometimes a book comes along and makes you stop a second from the continuous rounds and cycles of your days. I’m still thinking about the book. I love that!
“Let the Great World Spin,” by Colum McCann is a book Amazon picked as one of the top books for 2009. I had no prior knowledge of the book, and the synopsis reminded me of the movie “Crash,” lots of characters who are connected by an event. So, I thought the book club ladies might enjoy the book, and I’m so glad I read it.
McCann introduces us to Corrigan and his brother in the first chapter. I wasn’t sure if Corrigan had an addiction, was mentally unstable, or just odd. I struggled with the character in the beginning, but keep reading. Sometimes people are just good.
The characters in this story seem so real. McCann through all the tragedy has managed to keep the characters balanced with some humor and lets us see a peppering of the characters’ everyday normalness. It doesn’t matter which character in the story – you will care about all of them, no matter how egregious their behavior.
McCann ties the story to the tightrope act between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. I graduated from high school in 1974 and remember this crazy stunt. It was a confusing time filled with anxiety over the economy, the aftereffects of the Vietnam war, the culture clashes and the uncertainty about where we were going. It was a gentler time than the decades that followed – it was the staging time for the ME decade.
The idealism of the previous decades clashes with the reality of the 1970’s in this novel. It is so tragic, but uplifts you to a place of soothing and acceptance. This is a wonderful novel for book clubs. There is so much to talk about from the court system, death, altruism, and friendship. I highly recommend this for book clubs.
Rating: 9