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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
This is not the most cheery book. But it was good! It’s written like a collection of short stories and everyone’s story is somehow intertwined.
Set in New York City in the 1970s, this book tells the story of a number of New Yorkers unknowingly linked together around a single event. The writing is beautiful. I will say, the first chapter was a bit slow and hard to get into, which is why I gave the book 4 stars vs. 5.
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks Colum McCann set to work on a unique novel dedicated to New York City in all of its vagaries. Reading the preface to this book was essential to understanding and appreciating the novel. In it, McCann details his father-in-law’s journey out of the World Trade Center, and walk home through a ruined city. He talks about how the shoes that his father-in-law wore still sit in the closet of the office where he writes. These images evoke strong emotions even from me, a college student halfway across the country on September 11, with only a passing connection to the city. Even given that, however, the role that New York plays in the national psyche, and as a representative of the nation as a whole, makes this novel all the more meaningful.
The book is a collection of stories centered around the tightrope walk of Philippe Petit between the Twin Towers in 1974, and secondarily around the lives of prostitutes working under the freeway in the Bronx. At first each story bears no resemblance to the others, until they start to pick up speed, and spin together, like stripes of a separate color on a spinning top. They don't make sense separately, but when all taken together they make a beautiful whole. Altogether, a very worthy addition to the bookshelf.
The book is a collection of stories centered around the tightrope walk of Philippe Petit between the Twin Towers in 1974, and secondarily around the lives of prostitutes working under the freeway in the Bronx. At first each story bears no resemblance to the others, until they start to pick up speed, and spin together, like stripes of a separate color on a spinning top. They don't make sense separately, but when all taken together they make a beautiful whole. Altogether, a very worthy addition to the bookshelf.
4.5 stars
I'll start by commending the author for his gift of gab. It's most apparent that he loves to write and takes pride in the poetry of his writing. As beautiful as his words and sentences were .. at times it felt unnecessarily redundant, distracting and exhausting... he most definitely went on and on at times with no end in sight... but then he'd drop a major plot point in a one liner and move past it at a blink of an eye! I would say don't read this book in haste, read it slow and take it in. If you want to just get through it, you'll have a hard time with the first 200+ pages.
I ended up mixing reading the book with listening to the audio. And i enjoyed both, for different reasons. A few friends recommended the audio as it was narrated in a unique style of using a different orator per chapter. This was brilliant and i think lended itself very well to the writing style. The biggest challenge in the written format, was the constantly changing narrators and perspectives between chapters. Most books are narrated by one or max two people... here every chapter was narrated by a different person and some were first person narratives and others in the third person! This made the chapter transitions very choppy and disjointed. I think changing the voices, in the audio version actually helped alot to smooth it out.
The story focuses on a day in NYC in aug 1974, when the news highlight was a tightrope walker stopping traffic as he traversed the twin towers 110 stories above street level. That is the main news highlight that day, but the real premise of the book is about 10 or so different characters who's lives cross paths one way or another on that day. Their stories weave through different timelines and locations effortlessly in a very smart, brilliant manner allowing their stories to traverse paths at that juncture and then move beyond it... eventually, if you stick with it, the author ties it all together in a very gratifying tight bow.
In summary, i would recommend this book to the most patient of readers who's willing to enjoy the journey and not focus on the destination. Once you get over the stylistic issues, the characters themselves are very well developed and the story unfolds very naturally.
I'll start by commending the author for his gift of gab. It's most apparent that he loves to write and takes pride in the poetry of his writing. As beautiful as his words and sentences were .. at times it felt unnecessarily redundant, distracting and exhausting... he most definitely went on and on at times with no end in sight... but then he'd drop a major plot point in a one liner and move past it at a blink of an eye! I would say don't read this book in haste, read it slow and take it in. If you want to just get through it, you'll have a hard time with the first 200+ pages.
I ended up mixing reading the book with listening to the audio. And i enjoyed both, for different reasons. A few friends recommended the audio as it was narrated in a unique style of using a different orator per chapter. This was brilliant and i think lended itself very well to the writing style. The biggest challenge in the written format, was the constantly changing narrators and perspectives between chapters. Most books are narrated by one or max two people... here every chapter was narrated by a different person and some were first person narratives and others in the third person! This made the chapter transitions very choppy and disjointed. I think changing the voices, in the audio version actually helped alot to smooth it out.
The story focuses on a day in NYC in aug 1974, when the news highlight was a tightrope walker stopping traffic as he traversed the twin towers 110 stories above street level. That is the main news highlight that day, but the real premise of the book is about 10 or so different characters who's lives cross paths one way or another on that day. Their stories weave through different timelines and locations effortlessly in a very smart, brilliant manner allowing their stories to traverse paths at that juncture and then move beyond it... eventually, if you stick with it, the author ties it all together in a very gratifying tight bow.
In summary, i would recommend this book to the most patient of readers who's willing to enjoy the journey and not focus on the destination. Once you get over the stylistic issues, the characters themselves are very well developed and the story unfolds very naturally.
Very interesting storytelling around a true event in history. Took me a while to get through but it really picked up toward the middle and then I didn't want it to end!
Very interesting characters living in New York in the 70s. Separate deeply touching stories all coming together in a beautiful way. Sad and difficult lives you know exists in real life. I recommend picking that one up.
I read this book again just now Jan 2021 and did not remember any of it. Makes me think I made a mistake marking it Read as it is a book worth remembering.
Perfectly fine, honestly, but I didn't finish this and I think the fault lies in me. I guess I'm just not in the mood for this sort of thing lately. ("What sort of thing? 'Good literature'?" Well, yeah, I guess.) It was a slog to make myself keep reading and throughout I struggled to connect with it or care about anything going on within. Again, I'm pretty sure it's the reader and not the book who errs here. I look forward to, you know, connecting with and enjoying a work of literature again in future.
This is a really great audio book if you like Historical Fiction.
This was one of those reads where I think the author is a talented writer who a good job at what he was trying to do--I just didn't particularly enjoy reading it. Many perspectives with distinct voices, just very few of them I connected with.