<p>Hi gang… just happened to catch an eye of this thread as I was looking for my next book to read. The reviews seemed so favorably that I ordered the book online and it should be here Saturday. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the rec.</p>
<p>I have it on reserve at the libary- looking forward to reading it</p>
<p>Just started it on my Kindle. We’re on vacation next week, so I hope to make a lot of headway with it. Also, yesterday I attended my first meeting of the “Books on the Beach” club here in our beach house community – and this book is also on their list. Yeah! It will be interesting to compare “discussions” between the 2 groups.</p>
<p>CBBBlinker, great news about your “beach” book club, also discussing “Let the Great World Spin”!
Also, this book may have resonated with me because I, visited NYC often, during the mid and late 70s, and as Booklady, a NYC resident during that time, stated “Mccann captured the time” very well.
I hope it doesn’t ‘give anything away’ to say that I cried a lot during this book.</p>
<p>I read it, can’t wait for the discussion. Liked it a lot.</p>
<p>Ignatius thanks for post about the movie “Man On Wire”, which is a free movie On Demand-Comcast free movie section. Documentary rated 8 out of 10 on IMDB, and Sundance award winning documentary.</p>
<p>The movie was fascinating, amazing, breathtaking, stunning after reading Let the Great World Spin. Comcast subscribers- check it out.</p>
<p>I’m about 70% finished – but have to take a break to read the book for Thursday’s “Books on the Beach” gathering. We’re reading “Same Kind of Different As Me.”</p>
<p>So … somewhere between the previous “Books on the Beach” meeting and the email that just came out listing the books for the remaining meetings, “Let the Great World Spin” was dropped. Oh well, their loss.</p>
<p>I just watched “Man on Wire.” I had quite a gap in my cultural knowledge! Somehow, this incident was not on my radar as a teen ("too focused on Nixon’s impending resignation,” said my husband :). Ha ha…at 13, I was probably too focused on the next episode of “The Waltons.”)</p>
<p>The documentary was fascinating. It will be interesting to talk with you all about the exact points where fact and fiction collide in Let the Great World Spin.</p>
<p>^^ Mary I didn’t remember anything about the actual tightrope walk, and I am glad I read the book first, before watching Man on Wire.</p>
<p>Finished the book! My lips are sealed until August.</p>
<p>I finished last night to definite mixed feelings about liking the book. 
The discussion should be interesting.</p>
<p>It’s August 1st! I hope everyone is having a great summer—and that part of that summer included enjoying Let the Great World Spin. I thought the book was excellent. </p>
<p>There are a couple of different reading guides available online, but The Random House Reading Guide—which is in printed in the back of the novel–can be found here:</p>
<p>[Let</a> the Great World Spin by Colum McCann - Trade Paperback - Random House - Reading Group Guide](<a href=“http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812973990&view=rg]Let”>http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812973990&view=rg)</p>
<p>As a jumping off point, here are the first two questions, which seem closely related:</p>
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<p>As to the first question, I think Colum McCann provides the answer himself through the voice of Gloria, in the chapter “All Hail and Hallelujah.” Gloria says, “It had never occurred to me before but everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected” (p. 306). I’d say this is one of the central themes of the novel. McCann doesn’t want to simply reveal the “all-encompassing nature of the city,” he wants to show how all those lives are intertwined. The John Donne meditation comes to mind: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”</p>
<p>Re the second question, I think that the novel absolutely must take place in New York. Although there is definitely an everyman quality to the characters, the New York setting is vital: The story’s touchpoint is a real-life New York incident of great aesthetic beauty, and it foreshadows a later real-life New York incident of great tragedy. In the last chapter of the book, Jaslyn draws this parallel:</p>
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<p>Mary, I agree. While some of the individual stories might have taken place in other areas of the US (particularly cities), having all those people from different walks of life intersect in the way they do is something that could only happen in NYC. I mentioned this upthread, but I was a teenager in NY in the '70s, and McCann captures so well what the city felt like in those days, which was a mixture of both squalor and splendor.</p>
<p>Eloquently said, Mary.</p>
<p>I loved the shift of voice in each chapter as different characters tell their story. I was intriguied with the character of Corrigon(?) Do any of you think he was modeled on any one?</p>
<p>According to Wikipedia, he’s supposedly based on Fr. Daniel Berrigan. But considering his initials are J.C…</p>
<p>I also enjoyed the “shift of voice”. McCann did a great job giving life to each character. I hadn’t even noticed Corrigan’s initials being J.C.; interesting. I liked his character and would have enjoyed reading more of his story. </p>
<p>I agree that the story as it is could only take place in New York City. Cities have individual personalities and it would not be the same story located someplace else.</p>
<p>I scrolled down to the bottom of the page to post this so nothing will be spoiled for me. I’ve still got 35 pages to go, so I’m hoping to join in the discussion tomorrow!</p>
<p>I’m originally from Chicago and now LA but spent some extended periods of time in NY. It is definitely a NY book. There is a feeling of “grittiness” that could be Chicago or perhaps Boston but definitely not a more modern city eg LA. I am a bit embarassed to admit this, but until the book was finished I thought it was written by a woman. I paid no attention to the author’s name so I was taken aback. Some books that are written with a woman’s voice by a man eg. Wally Lamb I find really lacking.</p>
<p>I enjoyed the book a lot! Until several of the characters and their stories started coming together, I was feeling like the book was pretty fractured. But it was fascinating to see how the author wove everything together, especially at the end. I also really enjoyed the actual writing/way with words. There was one chapter in particular that was just great – I think it was the one about the tightrope walker training? (The one downside of the Kindle is it’s more difficult to “flip back” in a book to find things.) </p>
<p>Did the book need to take place in NYC? Absolutely. There’s no place quite like it, especially because of the towers.</p>