Let the Great World Spin
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''Let the Great World Spin'' is a novel by
Colum McCann Colum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and now lives in New York. He is a Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence at Hunter College, New York. McCann's work has been published in over 40 languages, and ...
set mainly in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the United States. The book won the 2009 U.S.
National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...
and the 2011
International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...
, one of the most lucrative literary prizes in the world. Its title comes from the poem "
Locksley Hall "Locksley Hall" is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson in 1835 and published in his 1842 collection of ''Poems''. It narrates the emotions of a rejected suitor upon coming to his childhood home, an apparently fictional Locksley Hall, though in fac ...
" by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
.


Plot

The events of the story are told in a largely non-linear fashion, with several different narrators telling the story from different perspectives. The story is interspersed with fictionalized accounts of
Philippe Petit Philippe Petit (; born 13 August 1949) is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his unauthorized high-wire walks between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and of Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973, as well as between the Twi ...
's 1974 tightrope walk across the Twin Towers, the date on which the two main events of the novel occur: a fatal car crash and a trial. In 1974, an Irishman named Ciaran travels to New York City to see his younger brother, Corrigan, a devout Jesuit monk who has moved to the projects of the Bronx. Corrigan works at a nursing home and has befriended several of the prostitutes working around his apartment, leaving his door unlocked so they can use his bathroom despite the danger this frequently puts him in. Ciaran meets two of the prostitutes, Tillie and her daughter Jazzlyn, who has two young children of her own. After Ciaran notices bruises on the inside of Corrigan's arm, he begins to suspect that he is using drugs. When he confronts him about this, Corrigan reveals that he is not using drugs but is in reality suffering from
TTP TTP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus'', a book by the philosopher Baruch Spinoza Biology * Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, a blood disorder * Tristetraprolin, a protein Computing * Terrori ...
. This was brought to his attention by Adelita, a nurse he met at the nursing home and has fallen in love with. This comes into direct conflict with the vows of chastity he took as a teenager and his sworn devotion to God, and he struggles to reconcile these beliefs with his love for Adelita. Several months after Ciaran initially arrives in New York City, there is an incident in which many of the prostitutes are arrested, and Tillie and Jazzlyn are held in jail over an outstanding warrant for robbery. During the arrest, Jazzlyn drops a keychain with photos of her two children, which Corrigan picks up, intending to return it. The following day - 7 August 1974, the day of Philipe Petit's tightrope walk - Corrigan asks Ciaran to take over his shift at the nursing home for the day while he goes to pick up Jazzlyn from court after her acquittal. Ciaran agrees, and discusses his brother with Adelita, eventually coming to the conclusion that they have the right to be happy together for the time being no matter how their relationship will end. At the very moment Ciaran is coming to this conclusion, Corrigan's van is hit by a gold car on the
FDR Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...
, causing a massive car crash. Jazzlyn is killed instantly, and Corrigan is left so badly injured that the paramedics initially believe him to be dead. Lara, the passenger in the gold car, pleads with her husband Blaine, who was driving, to stop and accept responsibility, but loses her nerve when she hears sirens approaching and the two leave the scene of the crash. Meanwhile, Corrigan is rushed to a hospital and survives long enough for Adelita and Ciaran to make it to his bedside, where he tells Adelita that he had "seen something beautiful" before he finally dies. The same day, Claire, a woman from a very wealthy southern family who lives on the Upper East Side, hosts a gathering for a group of mothers who have lost children in the Vietnam war. On the way to Claire's apartment, one of the women saw the tightrope walker and was shaken due to the fact that it reminded her of her son, expressing the belief that it was her son coming back to see her. Claire is greatly upset by this but cannot figure out why, eventually realizing that she resents the idea that someone would be so flippant about their own personal safety, showing so little disregard for their life when their sons were forced to give up their own without a choice. She tells the group the story of how she learned her son, Joshua, had been killed; Joshua had been drafted into Vietnam and worked as a computer programmer, writing code that would allow the computers to automatically tally American casualties. Unlike most of the other women's children, Joshua was not in active combat, but instead died when a grenade was detonated at the coffee shop he was inside. She reveals that she didn't know how to react to the officer who came to inform them of their son's death and instead just smiled and thanked him, unable to do anything else. After telling the story, she realizes that there is nothing they can do but rely on each other to heal, and decides to let go of her anger towards the tightrope walking man and instead focus on the memory of her son. As the women leave Claire's apartment, Claire pleads with Gloria - a black woman who is Claire's favorite of the group - to stay; Gloria considers staying, but decides to leave, as "we didn’t go freedom-riding years ago to clean apartments on Park Avenue". Before she departs, Claire tells Gloria that she would be happy to pay her, startling both women and causing Gloria to leave the building hastily. However, she is robbed of her purse - containing photographs of her sons - on the way home, and hails a cab back to Claire's apartment, where Claire apologizes profusely for what she said despite Gloria insisting that it doesn't matter. After several hours of talking, Claire's husband, Solomon, a judge, returns home, and tells them that he had presided over the case of the man on the tightrope and charged him a dollar and ten cents - one penny per floor - as well as another performance. Claire then takes Gloria home in a taxi; when they reach their destination, they see two young children being led away by a social worker. Gloria tells the social worker that she knows them and ends up raising the children, who are revealed to be Jazzlyn's daughters, Janice and another girl, also named Jazzlyn. The following day, Lara, the passenger in the gold car, continues to feel tremendous guilt over Jazzlyn's death. The year before, she and Blaine - both of whom are artists - had decided that they would stop using drugs and drinking and moved to a secluded cabin in upstate New York; however, the night before the crash, they indulged in a night of partying and had intended to return to the cabin and detox the following day, when they drove back home, still high on cocaine. After a fight with Blaine, who insists that they were not responsible, she returns to the city and checks the hospitals to find out what happened to Corrigan, eventually learning that he died. She tells the hospital staff she is his cousin and collects his belongings, among which is Jazzlyn's keychain, which she assumes to be a photo of Corrigan's children. She drives to the address on Corrigan's license and enters his apartment, where she finds Adelita and Ciaran, cleaning up the apartment. She returns Corrigan's belongings to his brother, and asks if she can accompany them to Jazzlyn's funeral. At the funeral, Tillie is escorted by two cops and still in handcuffs, which they reluctantly remove to allow her to see her daughter's body. Afterwards, Tillie is taken back to jail and Lara offers Ciaran a ride home. Ciaran accepts, but immediately recognizes her car as the one involved in the crash, and angrily asks her why she didn't stop when Lara lies and tells him she was driving. The two eventually end up going out to a bar, where Ciaran tells her about his brother. As Tillie begins serving her eight-month sentence, it is revealed that her and Jazzlyn's case - presided over by Solomon, Claire's husband - had been decided by a deal struck between her and the detective: if Tillie pleaded guilty, he would give her six months and allow Jazzlyn to go free. While in prison, Tillie reflects on her life and the guilt she has over the life that Jazzlyn ended up living, considering the plea deal she took as the final time she failed her daughter that resulted in her death. While she is in prison, she is visited several times by Lara, who brings her books of Rumi's poetry (at Ciaran's suggestion) and assures her that her granddaughters are doing fine. Tillie comes up with a plan to commit suicide, and eventually executes it, dying in prison with the wish of seeing her daughter again. Before she dies, she is visited by Gloria with Jazzlyn's children, and decides that it is better that she not be involved in their lives, as she believes she is the reason that Jazzlyn's life ended the way that it did. In 2006, 32 years after the main events of the book, Jazzlyn's daughter, Jazzlyn - who has changed her name to Jaslyn - returns to New York City to see Claire, who has suffered a debilitating stroke. In the airport, Jaslyn encounters Pino, a doctor who makes a joke in the security line and is detained by security, and they have sex. It is revealed that Ciaran and Lara ended up getting married, although Jaslyn did not know them very well while growing up. The book ends with Jaslyn visiting Claire, whose stroke has rendered her mostly incapacitated, as she reflects on the nature of life.


Approach

The novel is written in a non-linear fashion, narrated by several of the eleven different protagonists. The lives of the characters are slowly woven together and revealed to be connected, despite the fact that some are not aware of this and have never even met. As most of the story unfolds over the course of several days, many events, such as the car crash and the trial, are retold from different perspectives by different narrators.


Themes

Throughout the book, the author weaves the stories of each of the protagonists through the central events of the story, exploring the personal impact that these events had on the lives on each individual character. Despite the fact that many of the protagonists have never met and are from completely different worlds, they are all affected by the same occurrences; in subsequent interviews, the author has noted his intention to point out the melodramatic tensions present in all of our lives, whether perched upon a death-defying high wire, or merely trying to live out a more "ordinary" life, "where there is still an invisible tight-rope wire that we all walk, with equally high stakes, only it is hidden to most, and only 1 inch off the ground". Quote from Diane Rehm interview with Colum McCann


Reception

''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reviewer Jonathan Mahler ranked this book as, "One of the most electric, profound novels I have read in years." New York Times book review. The novel received numerous honours including the U.S.
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
."National Book Awards – 2009"
National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...
. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
(With interview of McCann and other material.)
It was named winner of the 2011
International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...
in June 2011. The judging panel, among whom were
John Boyne John Boyne (born 30 April 1971) is an Irish novelist. He is the author of eleven novels for adults and six novels for younger readers. His novels are published in over 50 languages. His 2006 novel ''The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'' was adapte ...
and
Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet who writes in English and is a translator of texts from German. Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into a family with a literary tradition. His father was the German novelist Ger ...
, described the book as a "remarkable literary work ..a genuinely 21st century novel that speaks to its time but is not enslaved by it", noting the book's opening pages in which "the people of New York city stand breathless and overwhelmed as a great artist dazzles them in a realm that seemed impossible until that moment; Colum McCann does the same thing in this novel, leaving the reader just as stunned as the New Yorkers, just as moved and just as grateful".
Lord Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The ...
Gerry Breen Gerry Breen is an Irish former Fine Gael politician and Lord Mayor of Dublin. Born in Clontarf in Dublin, educated in Coláiste Mhuire and UCD (B Comm), Breen first entered politics in 1981 when he joined Fine Gael. At the 1999 local election ...
said it was "wonderful and fitting to have a Dublin winner in the year that Dublin was awarded
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
City of Literature UNESCO's City of Literature programme is part of the wider Creative Cities Network. The ''Network'' was launched in 2004, and now has member cities in seven creative fields. The other creative fields are: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gas ...
designation, a designation in perpetuity".


Album with Joe Hurley

Colum McCann and musician Joe Hurley cowrote a song-cycle—"The House That Horse Built (Let the Great World Spin)"—based on McCann's novel. The album is narrated from the perspective of the character Tillie. It was recorded with Hurley's band The Gents—James Mastro ( Ian Hunter),
Tony Shanahan Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "punk poet ...
(
Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''. Called the "punk poe ...
), and Ken Margolis (
Cracker Cracker, crackers or The Crackers may refer to: Animals * ''Hamadryas'' (butterfly), or crackers, a genus of brush-footed butterflies * '' Sparodon'', a monotypic genus whose species is sometimes known as "Cracker" Arts and entertainment Films ...
)—and features
The Chieftains The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ...
'
Paddy Moloney Paddy Moloney ( ga, Pádraig Ó Maoldomhnaigh; 1 August 1938 – 12 October 2021) was an Irish musician, composer, and record producer. He co-founded and led the Irish musical group the Chieftains, playing on all of their 44 albums. He was parti ...
,
Matt Sweeney Matt Sweeney (born July 2, 1969) is an American musician and record producer best known as a guitarist of Skunk, Chavez, and supergroup Zwan. Early life and education Sweeney was born in New Jersey. His father was John D. Sweeney, a professo ...
, soul singer
Tami Lynn Tami or TAMI may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tami (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with either the given name or nickname * Mark Tami (born 1962), British politician and Member of Parliament * Pierluigi Tami ...
, film actress
Antonique Smith Antonique Smith (born August 11, 1983) is an American actress and singer. Life and career Smith was born in East Orange, New Jersey. She starred as Mimi in Jonathan Larson's Broadway production of ''Rent''. She was also the poster girl for '' ...
, Denis Diken and
Joe McGinty Joe McGinty is an American composer, keyboardist and arranger who was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. McGinty is most widely known for his five years as the keyboardist for The Psychedelic Furs (after a brief stint with Robert Hazard in Philad ...
. It was produced by Don Fleming and Hurley.


References


External links


Small Talk: Colum McCann
''Financial Times'', 29 August 2009 {{NBA for Fiction 2000–2024 2009 American novels Fiction set in the 1970s National Book Award for Fiction winning works Novels set in New York City Nonlinear narrative novels Novels with multiple narrators Random House books