Let the Great World Spin / Colum McCann 349 p.

At the hub of this story is Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in August 1974.  Other contemporary events include Nixon's resignation and, of course, the Vietnam War.  This book is more a collage than a novel: several stories link both to one another and to each character's experience of watching or hearing about Petit's walk.  After reading McCann's Transatlantic last year, a novel that works along similar lines, it's clear that McCann is moved by images of flight, mid-air suspension, and buoyancy.  And the individual stories are beautifully told:  an Irish monk living Francis of Assisi-style among Bronx prostitutes, a group of women gathering to mourn their sons killed in Vietnam, the monk's Guatemalan girlfriend, his brother, the distinct stories of several of the prostitutes, and a disaffected young couple trying to live like F. Scott and Zelda, and I think I'm forgetting some.  The problem is that in a relatively short work, these are too many characters and voices to achieve any sort of deep investment on the part of the reader, particularly if, like me, you're not turned on by flight.  Technically brilliant but hollow.