Let the Great World Spin

DeLillo's Underworld, Take Two.

A bunch of characters. New York. Decades long. All stories link to a seminal event that serves as a metaphor of different things to different people.

McCann does DeLillo better, though. While both novels are heavy and everything is a metaphor for how loaded with stuff life is, in Underworld all of its characters use the same lens, the same DeLillo Dictionary of Metaphors, the same voice with different filters like an instagrammed narrative. McCann, on the other hand, makes a dozen individuals whose actions are influenced by vastly different creation myths, life experiences, and DNA.

This novel gave me exactly what I didn't know was missing from DeLillo's novel a few weeks ago.

Beyond doubt this is one of the best books that I have read. A spinning, swirling story that drags you through New York in 1974 that is told at a relentless pace. After the first section, told from the perspective of an Irishman travelling to the Big Apple to see his brother, the plot is told from the first person of a host of other characters that are all involved in one interlaced and intricate story of life.

For me this book captures the experience of New York City perfectly, and it is filled with deep, character-driven imagery that is near perfect. As close to flawless as writing gets.

3.5

Since I have too much to read, I probably rushed through too much of this book. There wasn't enough Phillipe Petit as I expected, but the section about the mothers who lost sons in Vietnam was absolutely brillant. It captures the loss and emotional stress that war can cause on even those who aren't actually in the war, as well as demonstrating the fear that horrific events can bring about. It's amazing that something about Vietnam and a WTC circus stunt can be so exquisitely and subtly related to the events of 9/11.

Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, would be a short story collection, except that these stories become involved with each other and each have at least a temporal relationship to Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk between the twin towers in New York City.

Each story is engrossing, the characters well-drawn and realistic. They are also diverse, in every way. McCann managed to convince me that the whole world could easily fit into New York City. I enjoyed it very much and admire McCann's writing style. It's easy to see why this book has gotten so much buzz--and the 2009 National Book Award.

Thrilling, expansive, not compelling all the way through, but a worthy 21st century successor to EL Doctorow's Ragtime.