Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, 349 pages.

This was our April book discussion title, so this post is a little late. But, then there are still some titles from January that need to be blogged about. Our Wednesday night U-City book group had a really good discussion about this title because (as my feeble memory will have me believe) everyone agreed that the writing was beautiful, the characters crisp and lively, and the situations unique utterly believable.
Most of the book, which the author calls an allegory of 9/11, takes place during the course of one day in Manhattan, in August,  1974, as Phillipe Petit walked a tightrope  wire between the Twin Towers.
As the book opens Ciaran and his brother Corrigan have taken different paths out of Ireland, but both have ended up in Manhattan in 1974. Corrigan is now a monk of an indeterminate order, he has followed Christ and gone to live and work among the poor. When Ciaran visits him there, he finds him in the projects, where he has befriended Tillie, Jazzlyn, and the other local prostitutes. Tillie and Jazzlyn and their family story become central to the story as the tale ripples outward, in this beautifully written tale.
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