The 2009 National Book Award winner Let the Great World Spin was a book that I couldn’t find somehow for a long time. When I finally found it one night, I was in İstanbul, and the book was trapped between ridiculous racks of books. Like all the books I struggle to find; unfortunately, I could not love this book as well.
Let the years pass
As I thought while reading this, I guess I have to get old so that I can enjoy this book. I have to let the years pass slowly because I was extremely bored. This book consists of stories that are quite seated and intertwined; unfortunately, they failed to impress. Colum McCann’s writing the words, phrases, situations over and over again, trying to reveal the depth or continuity of the event in such style made me nervous, and I skipped most of the sentences.
In some cases, I had to reread the same page, because I was so bored I was thinking about something else. This hasn’t happened to me for a long time. So believe me when I say I’ve tried so hard to read this book. If you’ve read another work of the author and liked it, I’d recommend you to read this one. For me, this will be the last.
About the book: Let the Great World Spin
It’s New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life; and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York. In the shadow of one reckless and beautiful act, these disparate lives will collide, and be transformed for ever.
About the author: Colum McCann
Colum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and now lives in New York.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
