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kitkatkyew's review against another edition
4.0
an appreciation for life, and really beautiful prose. i could feel each character and was delighted to discover the connections. i felt weird about reading the n-word tho from the white characters, but like i guess that’s reality…
ajlovesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
this novel took me several attempts to get through. Although it was a good novel in all honesty it's not my style. If I hadn't won in in the free giveaway i would never have purchased this book.
thetbrstack's review against another edition
5.0
Take an unexpected but momentous public event. Use it as the backdrop for the stories of ordinary New Yorkers. Show that no matter what happens in the day-to-day, our private lives go on. McCann tells this story, and the tells it superbly.
acsaper's review against another edition
4.0
The many ways in which our world's collide. Let the Great World Spin weaves a tale of NYC in the 1970s, all based around the day that Phillipe Petit walked a tightrope between the tips of the World Trade Center towers.
The main characters call from all over the city, and from across the pond. Although they don't all know each other, as McCann develops their lives, we see the ways in which their stories touch, interact, and even collide. In doing so, you're reminded how interconnected we all our to one another - even in a city of some many-millions of people.
Artists, prostitutes, socialites, judges, grief-stricken mothers of conscripted soldiers, a tight rope walker, a renegade priest, a brother, two small children and a sense that we don't even quite know what this world is going to throw at us.
It took me a while to get going in the story, understanding how these world's would connect, or why the stories seemed so disparate. However, as they began to collide, I was drawn in, spinning faster and faster like the coin racing towards the bottom of a funnel at a museum gravity exhibit. Enjoyable and moving read.
The main characters call from all over the city, and from across the pond. Although they don't all know each other, as McCann develops their lives, we see the ways in which their stories touch, interact, and even collide. In doing so, you're reminded how interconnected we all our to one another - even in a city of some many-millions of people.
Artists, prostitutes, socialites, judges, grief-stricken mothers of conscripted soldiers, a tight rope walker, a renegade priest, a brother, two small children and a sense that we don't even quite know what this world is going to throw at us.
It took me a while to get going in the story, understanding how these world's would connect, or why the stories seemed so disparate. However, as they began to collide, I was drawn in, spinning faster and faster like the coin racing towards the bottom of a funnel at a museum gravity exhibit. Enjoyable and moving read.
sarahjo142's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Not particularly my cup of tea, but I can see why some people love it so much. As a New Yorker, I found it interesting to see the glimpse of the past, and the lives of so many fixed around a single point in history, but I also expected there to be more about the tightrope walk itself. Some of the character connections felt very forced and unnatural. Also very few of these characters were particularly likable or interesting. Just not really a book you get sucked into.
mia_48419's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
oleanderwillow's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Reminded me of 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Racism, Trafficking, and War
liz_156's review against another edition
4.0
-I had a hard time getting started on this book but once I got going, oh man.
-This is such a wonderful piece of art, with all of the tiniest details taken into consideration. Something as small as a phone booth being mentioned multiple times throughout the book takes on a new meaning depending on your perspective.
-All of the lives and people have a broken part of them, and this one day both displays and changes these small tradgedies
-This is such a wonderful piece of art, with all of the tiniest details taken into consideration. Something as small as a phone booth being mentioned multiple times throughout the book takes on a new meaning depending on your perspective.
-All of the lives and people have a broken part of them, and this one day both displays and changes these small tradgedies
notallbooks_mp's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
erickibler4's review against another edition
5.0
Perhaps THE best book I've read in the past year. A number of stories intertwine in August of 1974, playing off Philippe Petit's famous outlaw wirewalk on a cable stretched between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The important theme of this book is not that things end, but that things go on. Maybe our lives are like threads a couple of feet long twined into a much longer rope, tied to a chain, attached to a 250-foot length of 450 lb. cable, enabling a stunt that immortalizes a man, a structure, a city, a civilization. Sometimes when we think that our story is over, it turns out it's only a prelude of a much larger story, which itself spins into an even larger one. Maybe in that context, we're all immortal. McCann's mastery of the different characters' unique voices is impeccable. I particularly loved the part centering on Tillie, the Bronx hooker, and the descriptions of Petit's preparations for his magnificent stunt. But all the characters, however high or low in the social strata, or however exasperating, are understandable and even lovable when you see the world through their eyes.