Let the Great World Spin - August CC Book Club Selection

Parent Cafe
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I agree that the profiled characters come to life – and bring to life Corrigan and Jazzlyn, in particular, through them. And again, it’s McCann’s use of language - his own voice inflected into the other voices - that unites the so-called disparate stories - a good thing, I think, in this book. </p>

<p>Some secondary characters remain problematic for me:</p>

<p>Martha and the Mean Girls (sounds like a 60s R&B group :)) bother me, as previously mentioned. Though, since Booklady and SJCM seem to find them realistic enough (eek!), perhaps I’ll reluctantly move back to “Gee, I hope never to discover that ones I like have so little regard for me” – and let my heart break for Claire once again. SJCM hits the nail on the head when she points out that it reinforces Claire’s isolation. (But I’m still going to think of that group of women as Martha and the Mean Girls.) </p>

<p>Now to me, Albee personifies the “dirty old man” stereotype. Would Corrigan have brought him from the nursing home to the girls? I can see Corrigan easing the girls’ daily life and I can see him not passing judgment on them, but pimping – not so sure. Remember he stops Jazzlyn from shooting up in his apartment. Corrigan’s open door policy exists and he empties the used condoms from the wastebasket – both without a word of censure. However, he draws the line at allowing drug use or prostitution (which would have eased lives even more) in the apartment. Admittedly I wonder whether for me Albee falls under the dirty old man umbrella because the same scenario plays out in The Shadow of the Wind. (Been there and read that recently.) Daniel and Fermin procure a prostitute for the old man living in the nursing home - and I can so see Fermin doing so, no problem. I find it passing strange that the same scenario falls in almost our next book. Perhaps my view of the first colored my view of the second, making it less realistic overall.</p>

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<p>Forgot to add two things:</p>

<p>Mary, thanks for including the Rumi poem.</p>

<p>And regarding voice, the author does not use a first person perspective for the tightrope walker - understandable, but also Claire, Solomon, and the graffiti artist. Others’ stories are told from a first-person perspective - if I remember correctly. Any thoughts on this? Why not Claire and Solomon? Why the hacker and not the graffiti artist?</p>

<p>*and it’s Marcia and the Mean Girls (Caught my mistake too late to correct above.)</p>

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I, of course, had already forgotten about this connection. Maybe I’m too old/my memory is too short for this Book Club stuff! At the risk of repeating myself, as much as I love my Kindle, the inability easily flip back in a book is a real negative.</p>

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<p>Yes! I think I actually stopped reading during that passage and said, “whaaa?” I couldn’t get over the fact that such an eerily similar scene took place in two such very different books. Gosh, maybe pimping handicapped octogenarians takes place more often than we realize. :eek:</p>

<p>Good point about whether or not it was in-character for Corrigan to bring the old man to the girls. And yet, it’s also interesting that Judge Soderberg mistakes Corrigan for a pimp in his courtroom. A tiny bit of truth buried in that error?</p>

<p>Re voice, I also noticed that some of the chapters were first person (Ciaran, Tillie, Gloria, Adelita, Lara, etc.) and others were third person limited (Claire, Solomon, Fernando, Jaslyn, etc.) I think that might have been a way of helping the reader to separate one character from another. If every chapter had been “I, I, I,” we would probably have had a harder time distinguishing one voice from another.</p>

<p>I also noticed that some chapters use quotation marks for dialogue, while others use dashes. Does anyone have a preference or a thought as to why that might be? Dashes for dialogue always seem more dream-like and quiet to me, although I can’t sensibly explain that. I know that many authors favor dashes over quotation marks (per Wikipedia, Cormac McCarthy, Alan Paton, James Joyce, Charles Frazier, to name a few).</p>

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<p>I flip back and forth in books all the time, so I can see how that would be a real drawback. I’m surprised the Kindle designers haven’t figured out some way to make it easier to find an earlier passage. I don’t know anything about the Kindle–can you search via a keyword that then takes you back to a particular conversation or descriptive passage? I often wish I could do that.</p>

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<p>You can search for a certain word or phrase within a book on your Kindle; however, if all you are searching for is “Corrigan,” for example, it will not be very helpful in locating a specific passage.</p>

<p>I, too, felt the “Marcia and the Mean Girls” scene was contrived and did not ring true at all.</p>

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<p>^^^ I’ve actually never read the entire user’s guide for the Kindle – too long and boring! You can “highlight” passages and then refer to your highlights, but somehow I usually realize I should have highlighted/made notations after the fact. Perhaps I really need to bit the bullet and read the entire guide. (My excuse is there are so many good books waiting to be read…)</p>

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<p>Shifting gears for a moment…Those of you who watched “Man on Wire,” what did you think of Philippe Petit? After watching the documentary, my H and I wondered: If Petit had been born into today’s world (in America), might he have been medicated at a young age for ADDHD or something similar? And if he had been, how would that have changed his goals? Petit has an odd restlessness about him, a flighty, excited way of speaking, unfinished sentences, fidgeting, and an inability to focus on the question at hand—or so it seems. Yet obviously, his feat required more focus than most of us can muster in a lifetime.</p>

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<p>These questions stayed on my mind, because Jazzlyn never has a chance really, does she - at least, after a certain point? I wonder if Jazzlyn knows any men besides Corrigan away from her profession. She lives such a hard life, I want to add maturity to her 17 years, but she remains a child, in so many ways. Think of the coke episodes. I guess she herself has no idea how to fit Corrigan the man into a life where men only abuse and use. I imagine he becomes father figure and subconcious attraction both, perhaps with a touch of annoying yet fun older brother mixed in.</p>

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<p>The book portrays the tightrope walker as a solitary man; people surround Petit in the documentary. Yet none of the people seem to be related to him, but rather a lover and friends. I wondered at the time about a mother, father, sister, brother. Petit would not have been easy to raise; maybe he just wore everyone out.</p>

<p>I think he might be a living definition of narcissist. Not saying he wouldn’t have to be to accomplish what he did - just saying. My daughter commented that she understood that something within him compelled him, but she couldn’t quite see how others seemed to give up time, money, their own lives for Petit’s goals. He really does seem to use people up - both his lover and his best friend exist as such only until the time of the walk and then it’s done. He requests Annie to be in NY with him for the walk and then released from jail, he enjoys the moment with someone else. I think the man and the woman who speak as Annie and his best friend in the documentary are actors - at least, the movie credits seem to indicate that. </p>

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<p>That surprised me and I’m not quite sure what that means, though both Annie and *Jean-Louis<a href=“actors”>/i</a> said that the relationship with Philippe ended with the walk. I assume the words came from interviews, maybe? </p>

<p>Perhaps the book’s portrayal of the tightrope walker as a solitary man reveals the true Philippe Petit in a way.</p>

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<p>ignatius, the cast list you posted surprised me, too. It reads as if the present day middle-aged Annie and Jean-Louis were played by actors, which I thought very odd. At what point is a documentary no longer a documentary? But then I went to imdb.com, where the cast list is as follows:</p>

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[quote]
Cast<br>
Philippe Petit - Himself
Jean Fran</p>

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<p>Mary</p>

<p>I got the list of cast members I posted from Roger Ebert’s review of Man on Wire. I prefer to think the list you posted to be correct - it just makes more sense to me. Thanks for looking further. Though I have no idea which list is correct, personally I think Annie should be Annie, as should Jean-Louis.</p>

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<p>Here is an interesting coincidence. So much of Let the Great World Spin is about loss, particularly the loss of a child. Claire, Solomon, Gloria, Tillie, Marcia and the Mean Girls (;)) are all grieving children who have died.</p>

<p>In reading about Philippe Petit, I discovered that he lost a child as well. This is a rather fascinating interview with him post 9/11:</p>

<p>[Towers</a> are no more, but Petit to walk the wire again](<a href=“http://www.thevillager.com/villager_71/towersarenomore.html]Towers”>http://www.thevillager.com/villager_71/towersarenomore.html)</p>

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<p>Happy Anniversary to Philippe Petit! His magical gravity defying “dance” was 26 years ago today! </p>

<p>On August 7, sleep deprived he took that fateful step out from the building onto the wire.
From WIKI:
One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:
I observed the tightrope ‘dancer’—because you couldn’t call him a ‘walker’—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire…And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle…He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again…Unbelievable really…Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.[6]</p>

<p>My Willis Tower Moment-
About a week ago, I was on top of the Willis tower, (formerly the Sears Tower in Chicago), where they have built plexiglass viewing areas which jut out about 5 feet from the building. </p>

<p>Let me tell you it is daunting to step out onto the plexiglass surface, because you have the feeling that you are no longer safe in the building.
I stepped out onto the plexiglass surface, and put one foot in front of the other,
like Petit had to, and looked down. I stood there for a couple of minutes trying to imagine what that moment was like for him to walk out onto that wire. Unprotected, facing death with any misstep, or wind gust. </p>

<p>Standing 1000 feet above the Chicago street really made me appreciate, even more, Petit’s amazing feat.
Just incomprehensible! </p>

<p>So---- Happy Anniversary Phillipe!!! Happy August 7th.</p>

<p>Now, back to the discussion of this wonderful book.</p>

<p>Mary, about the article mentioning Petit’s child’s death, it says something about a head injury and within a day he or she (I forget right now) died. Wonder how that in jury happened ?</p>

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<p>In celebration and to share Petit’s walk with those who haven’t seen Man on Wire
Here are five minutes from the movie </p>

<p>Enjoy!
[YouTube</a> - ‪MAN ON WIRE - Twin towers scene - Philippe Petit (sub ita)‬‎](<a href=“MAN ON WIRE - Twin towers scene - Philippe Petit (sub ita) - YouTube”>MAN ON WIRE - Twin towers scene - Philippe Petit (sub ita) - YouTube)</p>

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<p>I guess we read this book at the right time! A big part of “Man on Wire” was the mechanics of planning of the “coup.” But SJChessMom, you’re right–just thinking about the moment of stepping out onto that wire–I can’t even imagine it. Your Willis Tower experiment was a good one. </p>

<p>I don’t have any details on the death of Petit’s child—that article I posted was the only place I read about it. Very sad, though.</p>

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<p>I linked to the Random House guide earlier ([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”>Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann: 9780812973990 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books)), and here is another one: [Let</a> the Great World Spin by Colum McCann Book - Reading Group Guide - Oprah.com](<a href=“http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Let-the-Great-World-Spin-by-Colum-McCann-Book-Reading-Group-Guide]Let”>http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Let-the-Great-World-Spin-by-Colum-McCann-Book-Reading-Group-Guide). Many of the questions are virtually identical, but there are a few differences. Here’s one that caught my eye: </p>

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<p>I looked up the poem “Locksley Hall”—‘twas way beyond my analyzing capabilities, not to mention exceedingly long :). However, the stanza from which McCann took his title is worth a glance:</p>

<p>Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range,
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.</p>

<p>I can see why those lines might appeal to McCann. In a way, they express both the “call” that Petit felt to walk the wire (“not in vain the distance beacons”), as well as the complex and varied and lives of McCann’s characters, whose actions have repercussions beyond that moment in history, spinning “for ever down the ringing grooves of change.”</p>

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<p>What caught my eye in that stanza is “let the great world spin for ever DOWN the ringing grooves of change.” Why “down,” instead of, say, “through?” To me, down brings to mind an image of something spiraling downward, which can often have a negative connotation – i.e., spiraling down, out of control. So, is change bad? Or am I finding something that’s just not there?</p>

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<p>Mary and CBB, you are both addressing some questions I have been asking myself, and spent some time yesterday, rereading parts of the book, as suggested by Alwaysamom, and reading many online interviews with Mccann. </p>

<p>Mccann states this book is about 9/11, and not the Petit’s “Le coup”, his tightrope walk.</p>

<p>So, the title must have some significance in relation to 9/11. </p>

<p>I read somewhere, CBB, that the grooves refer to train tracks, and I wonder if going “down” may mean just traveling “train tracks”, not in a downward motion, but in a projected path? The Twin Towers of 1974, on their path towards destiny and 9/11?</p>

<p>Mary13, I agree that poem is a complicated piece to tackle, but let’s look at just the big meaning of the poem.
As I recall, it is about a young man on the eve before he is do go to war. He returns to Locksley Hall, a place where he reflects about his life and his lovers, he soon will be in battle, his future unknown, like so many who have gone before him, and will go after, because that seems to be the nature of things. </p>

<p>The way the world works, the way it spins.</p>

<p>I’m intrigued in what ways you see the connections to 9/11 in “Let the Great World Spin”?</p>

<p>From this interview
[The</a> National Book Foundation](<a href=“http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pmGKaH46ZJwJ:www.nationalbook.org/nba2009_f_mccann_interv.html+let+the+great+world+spin+poem+tennyson&cd=19&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]The”>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pmGKaH46ZJwJ:www.nationalbook.org/nba2009_f_mccann_interv.html+let+the+great+world+spin+poem+tennyson&cd=19&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)</p>

<p>Then came the moment when I thought that I could go backwards in time to talk about the present: that’s when the tightrope walk came in. And the deeper I got into the novel the more I began to see that it was, hopefully, about an act of recovery. Because the book comes down to a very anonymous moment in the Bronx when two little kids are coming out of a very rough housing project, about to be taken away by the state, and they get rescued by an act of grace. That’s it, not much maybe, but everything to me. And there’s hardly a line in the novel about 9/11, but it’s everywhere if the reader wants it to be. I trust my readers. They will get from a book what they want. It can be read in many different ways. In this sense I hope it works on an open poetic level: make of this child what you will.</p>

<p>Here is Mccann addressing the title:
I had some difficulties finding the title, but then I came across the Tennyson quote: “Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change …” And, as luck would have it, Tennyson had been influenced by a series of sixth century pre-Islamic poems, the Mu’allaqat, which asks the question: “Is there any hope that this desolation can bring me solace?” And when I found that line, my heart skipped a beat or three, because it was exactly what I wanted.</p>

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<p>found this little blurb, too, just coincidence? </p>

<p>Few long-range forecasters can compete with that great English poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1883) whose poem Locksley Hall, first published in 1842, forecast the use of flying machines in trade and war. He wrote the poem more than 60 years before the Wright brothers took their home-built machine for a 12-second, sustained flight, in December 1903. That was the first successful, powered, piloted flight in history. Tennyson’s poem contained these memorable lines:</p>

<p>For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew
From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue</p>