Thursday, February 4, 2010

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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why have I never known about this blog?E could have our own book club online. Are you on GoodReads? That's where I put everything I'm reading. Post or talk on FB soon, I haven't heard from you in awhile