Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Laura B (now Laura H) recommended this book to me after her book club read it.  Within thirty pages I kept remarking to Web as I read it each night before bed, “this is an incredibly ambitious book” and I think that summarizes how I feel about it.  Ambitious-good, as in, choosing a very lofty theme and complex route to get there, not ambitious-bad, as in, sets high expectations for itself them doesn’t meet them.  This may well be the best-crafted book I’ve ever read.

The story takes place in the summer of 1974, around the time when Philippe Petit found a way to string a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center and walk across it.  The story of how he prepared for this feat is like a memorable musical theme that plays throughout the book, but it isn't the main plot.  The story is about ten New Yorkers and what their lives were like that summer.  The characters range from prostitutes and graffiti artists to a set of mothers who have lost their sons in Vietnam.  Each character is incredibly well-developed, and many of them are also incredibly sympathetic. 

What is special about the book is how McCann ties all the stories together and calls on Petit's story as an interlude.  His capture of place and time is exquisite.  I think it will be a while before I find another book as special as this one.

The Glister by John Burnside

This book made several of the year-end lists in 2010 so I picked up a copy.  The premise was compelling – a town built near a major chemical plant starts experiencing strange disappearances of its young men.  I expected it to be an eco-thriller, and I was under the impression it had a supernatural bent.

Well, it may have started out that way.  The writing was good and the characters interesting.  The narration passed from one character to another, not linearly.  However, at some point I just totally lost track of what was going on.  Those of you who read this blog regularly know that this is not a normal occurrence for me.  But Burnside took a left and I kept going straight and then the book ended. 

Certain online reviews expressed a similar confusion.  Can’t say I would recommend this book, and I feel cheated out of what I thought it would be.

Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer

This was another book I had on my list from the year-end reviews.  The action starts when a man accidentally sees another man hurting a seemingly harmless dog and decides to intervene.  The story is about what happens to each of them, and what the impact on each of their lives and relationships this meeting has.  It is also about the background each of the men has.

I though this book had great potential.  The characters were guided by very strong moral directions which made them easy to connect to or root against.  I also enjoyed the drama and build up that the author represented with internal dialogue.  However, something did not work for me overall in this book.  The main character’s girlfriend was a very spiritual person who writes self-help books – think Elizabeth Gilbert.  But she was also overly sexual, which I couldn’t help but be distracted by and suspect the male author of fantasizing a bit.  I also didn’t love the book as it went on: the final third was not that compelling and some of it seemed reasonably predictable.

I think I’d try something else by this author but this one didn’t do it for me.