Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann

The interconnectedness of many seemingly disparate lives in New York City rests on the thin wire that Phillipe Petit strung and walked (even reclined on) between the unfinished World Trade Center towers in 1974. God-wracked Irish priests; mother-daughter hookers; a judge and his refined wife, reeling from the sorrow of losing their only on in Viet Nam; an educated opera-loving Black woman living in the projects, and many other characters populate this novel and touch each other’s lives. Beautifully written and realized, but somehow I didn't like the book as much as I felt I should have. Having seen the movie Man on Wire made the image of the tightrope walker, who is fictionalized in this book, particularly effective. 349 pp.