Colum McCann
“Let the Great World Spin”
Random House 2009
349 pages

Set in 1970s New York, Colum McCann gives a multi-voiced account depicting the tragedy and passion necessary to exist as both insider and immigrant in a dynamic and unpredictable city. “Let the Great World Spin” is anchored in Funambulist Philippe Petit, who astounded the world by walking across a cable suspended between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. Each of the 10 primary narrative voices experience, at some point or another, Petit’s suspension amidst the New York skyline.

In a Joycean mode, McCann captures the distinct nuances of a city through multiple perspectives, but although there is a provocative series of voices and incidents, “Let the Great World Spin” captures New York through its processes and motions over time and not in a single day. Petit on his cable does not serve as a point of revelation so much as a point of unconscious aspiration that settles within characters emerging when or where necessary. This book is not about the immediate or the gratifying, but the hope within the terror and the benefits of that itching instinct to just keep pressing on.

Ciaran and his brother, Corrigan, end up in New York City from their native Ireland at separate times and for separate reasons, but soon enough become wrapped up in the interconnected web of McCann’s world. Corrigan lives in the Bronx and provides hospitality and amenities to the prostitutes strolling outside his apartment as a part of his personal duty to God; but Tillie, who works the street alongside her daughter, feels that “God is due His ass-kicking.”

Claire seems as distant from the brothers as Dublin is from New York City. Living in a Penthouse on Park Avenue with her husband, a judge, Claire’s life is as upset and unbalanced as Corrigan’s as he decides between his religious vows and the love of Guatemalan nurse, Adelita. The Vietnam War is still fresh in the minds of Americans, and Claire cannot forget the damage it has done to her family: “Just give my boy back to me. That’s all I want. Give him back.”

The remaining voices burst forth through varying depictions of difficult histories and tragic decisions. Though the voices remain unaware of the connective tissue of the city binding them together at the level of both disaster and blessing, they remain aware of their own mistakes with a powerful urgency to make the future worthwhile. The voices of youth seem the most lost among the choir, connected only through an observance of Philippe Petit’s great walk across the sky. Their voices remain on the fringe of this web, if only because they are still filled with a sense of strategic optimism in their youth and individuality.

Petit’s walk is a shocking event and his brief moments of narrative focus bring the walk from strange fairy tale to a planned reality. The longer you think about his act the more mundane it becomes until all the details reveal themselves and everything is more surprising than it was before. The lives of McCann’s characters seem to follow this same arc and resonate momentarily at the forefront, but always remain significant and compelling as they fade into the background of succeeding stories. The prose is tight and concise even as the story extends and probes into every corner of the city. The connections between characters are often predictable or seem too perfect, but they simply exist in the inherent magnetism of our world and for that are realistic and sincerely moving.

This book might not have changed my life, but I can understand Jonathan Mehler of The New York Times when he admits that it is “one of the most electric, profound novels I have read in years.” Whether truly profound or simply provocative and confident in its mission, “Let the Great World Spin” is worth the time and attention necessary to immerse yourself in a constantly surging New York City.