Let the Great World Spin: Connecting Disparate Lives, Missing the Mark on Voices


           Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin begins in Ireland, from the point of view of young Ciarin, brother to Corrigan. The two boys are raised by a single mother, abandoned by their father. By its end, the novel has introduced and dug into the lives of 11 characters, often from their vantage point.

            The book quickly moves from Europe to the United States, specifically New York City, where the majority of the cast is introduced and linked together (somewhat) by an August day in 1974 when Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers. Many of the book’s characters have a connection to Petit: they saw him up there; another is the judge who must penalize Petit for his efforts.

            The film “Crash” came to mind while reading the book; lives that should not under normal circumstances intersect find their way to do just that, here because of Petit. Claire, an Upper East Side housewife has lost her son in Vietnam. She has her support group of other mourning mothers for the first time to her apartment on the day of Petit’s walk, and the women’s tell of seeing Petit overshadow Claire’s moment to grieve with her new friends in the same space her son once lived; Gloria, another of the mothers, lost three sons in Vietnam.

It is not only the high wire act that ties the characters together but also their individual sadness with how their lives are now. This is where McCann succeeds. McCann imbues each character with enough pain in the present, and/or in back story, to connect the characters through inner conflict rather than just Petit’s stunt. He also allows his characters to heal, as life moves forward from tragedies. For Claire and Gloria, this is accomplished as they find in each other a deep love, and become important, lifelong friends.

Where McCann falters is in voices. Some, such as Ciarin’s or Claire’s, feel solid, varied, and real. Others such as that of Tillie, an imprisoned prostitute and friend of Corrigan, feel more like caricature but also surface. If McCann wanted to speak for 11 diverse characters, he would have done well to give each their deserved heft.

Thank you to Karen Hennessy for suggesting Let the Great World Spin. You can connect with me and see what I am reading next here.

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