Dancer -Colum Mc Cann

I had to read another Colum McCann book so I picked Dancer, a fictional account of the life of Rudolf Nureyev. Wonderful insight into post WWII Russia and it's slide back to a more open society. After defecting, Nureyev is not allowed home for 25 years. He has the world at his fingertips socializes with Andy Warhol and John Lennon; but can't visit with his own mother.

By the time Rudi gets to St. Petersburg for formal dance training he is already 18. He had received some training in his village town of Ufa. He is taken under the wing of Alexsandr Pushkin(Sasha) and trains for 5 years before defecting on tour in London. His life gets a bit wild. His dance partner for many years is Margot Fonteyn who is 19 years older than him. He dies of Aids in 1991, but is able to see his mother in Russia before she dies.

The book really develops the characters surrounding Rudi's whole life as McCann sees it. It is not a biography, but a very interesting look at the life of a dancer.

Let the Great World Spin -Colum McCann To Reach the Clouds -Philippe Petit

Reading these two book together only made sense to me. McCann's book if fiction with the climax of the story ocurring on August 7, 1974 when Petit performs for NY on a wire between the World Trade Center Towers.

From Gloria in McCann's book:

"People are good or half good or a quarter good, and it changes all the time--but even on the best day nobody's perfect."

"Everything falls into the hands of music eventually."

And from her daughter's voice:

"A man high in the air while a plane disappears, it seems, into the edge of the building. One small scrap of history meeting a larger one. As if the walking man were somehow anticipating what would come later. The intrusion of time and history. The collision point of stories. We wait for the explosion but it never occurs. The plane passes, the tightrope walker gets to the end of the wire. Things don't fall apart."

Petit's personal narrative is also fascinating. The amount of preparation is phenomenal. I also found it fascinating that his motives have never been about money. In fact, he is often broke. I loved his design at the end for rebuilt WTC Towers.