A review by moiraburke
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

4.0

"Kaleidoscopic view of the lives of New Yorkers, told as a series of interwoven vignettes. Beautiful character detail, especially through McCann's technique of describing the same event through multiple narrators. The uniting figure is Philippe Petit, the man who crossed a high wire between the Twin Towers in 1974. All of the stories intersect with his performance, and the act is a lens for the events of the time: Vietnam, race and class relations, pop art, the spread of heroin, arpanet, and liberation theology. However, the first 25 pages or so are tortured, wannabe Frank McCourt, so skim them quickly."