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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Wow! I was sad to see this book end. Taking place mostly on one day, the day Felipe Petit walked a high wire between the twin towers, the POV revolves by chapter, telling the stories of different people who are loosely linked - in this it almost works like a collection of interconnected stories, but it is most definitely a novel. Met Colum McCann in Aspen and heard him give a couple of great readings, and he was a lovely, delightful man.
Depressing at times, but all in all a nice read. Well written - McCann weaves the lives of his characters together in an interesting and often times unforseeable way.
the world's spinning, lives intertwine
very well written stories that intersect in many interesting ways. wonderful vignettes from different walks of life in new york city wrapped around an ordinary day turned extraordinary when petit walked the tightrope between the twin towers in the late 1970s.
very well written stories that intersect in many interesting ways. wonderful vignettes from different walks of life in new york city wrapped around an ordinary day turned extraordinary when petit walked the tightrope between the twin towers in the late 1970s.
Absolutely brilliant book, beautifully and poeticaly written, very believable set of characters and very loosely centered around the real-life tight rope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center by Philippe Petit in 1974. I would recommend anyone who loves literature to read this book. This one will sit with me for a long time.
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow, this prose. It’s beautiful and delicious. Colum McCann captures the mood of each moment and his characters psychology with remarkable precision. If I could inject this style of writing right into my veins, I would.
Most of the book is unrelentingly sad with a hopeful ending. Start is vaguely reminiscent of Shuggie Bain (bleak Irish childhood, alcoholism, political violence, etc), but the rest of the novel is gritty and sad in different ways. (Have I mentioned it’s sad?) This novel’s sense of place is very, very strong. New York City is essentially the main character.
Most of the book is unrelentingly sad with a hopeful ending. Start is vaguely reminiscent of Shuggie Bain (bleak Irish childhood, alcoholism, political violence, etc), but the rest of the novel is gritty and sad in different ways. (Have I mentioned it’s sad?) This novel’s sense of place is very, very strong. New York City is essentially the main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide
Minor: Violence
Beautiful, lyrical, sometimes stream-of-consciousness writing. Some of the stories within the novel work better than others as part of the whole, and some of the characters are better developed than others. Corrigan is an intriguing characters who I would have loved to have read an entire novel about. Original plot concept and situation.
Partway into the second story of a book that seems to be interconnected short stories, but almost a quarter into the book and there's no hint yet how they connect. I think I stopped reading the moment before a charcter from the first story walks in but... I hit that point where I'm just not curious what's coming next. The writing is deliberately stilted in that way that's supposed to be deep and artistic. Like these people are so profound and broken they can only speak in sentence fragments. So far the book is too one-note. It's sad. Tragic. And yet all the sadness lacks an emotional core. I'm just not interested in keeping going
Brilliant, sprawling novel of NYC in the 70s, a period I remember well and probably more fondly than it merits.
I was caught up in the lives of a couple of characters, and was eager to find out how they fared in the end of the book. But, at the same time, I didn't want this book to end. The writing, particularly descriptions of feelings and emotions of people who are, at best, marginal to society, is lush. This is the first novel I have read by Colum McCann; this man can write the f**k out of a sentence!
This title has been on my radar, if not my TBR, for a while. And it keeps getting brought up on the podcast I listen to so when my sister-in-love was cleaning off her shelves and getting rid of books and this title was up for grabs, I grabbed.
I've not read McCann before but what I do know of him is he writes great, sweeping, rich stories. If evidence is needed all one has to do is read this title.
This is an ambitious story and how McCann pulled it together is beyond my imagination or comprehension. He took a couple of different events and crafted a story from them to help him process the events of 9/11. What's intriguing about this premise is 9/11 is never mentioned and not a character in this book. The story takes place, with the exception of the first and last chapter, in August 1974 and centers on one specific day in that month. August 7, the day a man walked on a tightrope between the twin towers, one of which was still under construction.
While this story features a cast of about a dozen characters there are two that rise above the rest and are the common thread throughout the book. Ciaran and John Corrigan. Out of all the voices in the story Ciaran's is the one we hear the most of, even when he doesn't appear in the story at certain moments. His brother, John, or Corrigan as everyone including Ciaran calls him, is secondary in voice but plays a very important part of the story.
What you have at first is a bunch of stories about a bunch of different people and you wonder how they could possibly be pulled together as the book jacket promises. And where does the tightrope walker figure in - he does right? Keep reading because it becomes clear and the dots begin to connect and McCann does it so seamlessly and well that there's a delight when he allows the story to connect and you are tracking with it. He doesn't give away too much, he gives the reader just enough to satisfy the curiosity and know that there is more to come.
The conclusion is that McCann spins a story that shows just how small our world is and how we are all connected in ways we don't even realize and how those connections influence our futures.
This review is unsatisfactory but to say all I want to would spoil the reading experience for anyone who wants to give this title a go. This story will not be for everyone, I wasn't sure it would be for me, but it will be for some and it will move some in ways they don't expect. It did me.
I've not read McCann before but what I do know of him is he writes great, sweeping, rich stories. If evidence is needed all one has to do is read this title.
This is an ambitious story and how McCann pulled it together is beyond my imagination or comprehension. He took a couple of different events and crafted a story from them to help him process the events of 9/11. What's intriguing about this premise is 9/11 is never mentioned and not a character in this book. The story takes place, with the exception of the first and last chapter, in August 1974 and centers on one specific day in that month. August 7, the day a man walked on a tightrope between the twin towers, one of which was still under construction.
While this story features a cast of about a dozen characters there are two that rise above the rest and are the common thread throughout the book. Ciaran and John Corrigan. Out of all the voices in the story Ciaran's is the one we hear the most of, even when he doesn't appear in the story at certain moments. His brother, John, or Corrigan as everyone including Ciaran calls him, is secondary in voice but plays a very important part of the story.
What you have at first is a bunch of stories about a bunch of different people and you wonder how they could possibly be pulled together as the book jacket promises. And where does the tightrope walker figure in - he does right? Keep reading because it becomes clear and the dots begin to connect and McCann does it so seamlessly and well that there's a delight when he allows the story to connect and you are tracking with it. He doesn't give away too much, he gives the reader just enough to satisfy the curiosity and know that there is more to come.
The conclusion is that McCann spins a story that shows just how small our world is and how we are all connected in ways we don't even realize and how those connections influence our futures.
This review is unsatisfactory but to say all I want to would spoil the reading experience for anyone who wants to give this title a go. This story will not be for everyone, I wasn't sure it would be for me, but it will be for some and it will move some in ways they don't expect. It did me.