It's a lot like eating good chocolate. Let the Great World Spin

On August 7th, 1974 Philippe Petit walked a high wire strung between the World Trade Center buildings. 

Thus begins Let the Great World Spin. And thus ends any plans I had for the day.

I had every intention of getting up this morning and getting some stuff done around the apartment. I was going to make a Target run so I could stock up on cat litter. I was going to take a walk with my husband in the park. I was going to catch up on some episodes of old TV shows that have been languishing in the digital graveyard that is my DVR. Didn’t happen. It’s that kind of book.

It’s the kind of book you set down for a moment just so you can stay in the world a little longer. It’s the kind of book that breaks your heart and makes you laugh out loud on the same page. It’s the kind of book that stops you cold with a single sentence.

After all that, I’m relieved. This book got heaps of praise, it sat on staff selection shelves, it snaked it’s way up the precarious New York Times Bestsellers List, and it came highly recommended by people who love to read. I was skeptical. Hype, you see, is a bad thing. Hype made me think I’d like Napoleon Dynamite (2004) (Took every once of goodwill inside of me not to snap the DvD of that turd in half and mail it back to Netflix) Hype has sent me down the dark shadowy road of terrible, no good, very bad pop culture. Hype drives me away from books like this. At the end, it’s worth all of the hype and more.

This book is shoehorned into the 9/11 genera. It gets lumped in with books like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  and The Reluctant Fundamentalist . Honestly, I think that Let the Great World Spin a huge disservice. It’s not a great commentary on 9/11, or a post 9/11 society. It’s more of a richly woven story of a New York that existed once and propelled itself forward.

Moving on, I’ve got two books on the horizon. First up will be City of Thieves . Then I’ll be moving on to Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class.

Oh, and then there’s this....