What a great title. What an amazing image. And let me tell you something else, Colum McCann delivers in imagery, language, structure and sheer moments of heart wrenching beauty in telling a story that begins with the famous highwire tightrope walk that Philippe Petit did between the Twin Towers in New York City on August 6th, 1974.
Like an angel poised high above the city, the tightrope walker balances between life and death, beauty and horror, strength and frailty. And as New Yorker’s collectively held their breath below watching this fine balancing act, McCann with an almost spin of the dice begins to tell stories of people from all walks of life who were connected by the experience of either hearing or seeing the tightrope walker on that hot August day.
From the young Irish priest who offers kindness and grace to prostitutes in the Bronx, to a judge and his wife who suffer the loss of their son in Vietnam, to two young orphans who survive the carnage of their mother’s terrible life and her untimely death, these portraits and others show a city in the aftermath of an unforgiving war and still deeply divided by race and class.
Ultimately all these stories coalesce into a single point where the dots connect. Not only does the experience of the tightrope walker connect these seemingly disparate lives but what McCann evokes in his characters is the terrible burden and the incredible beauty of their humanity. Like a prism he turns his cast into the light so we can see them more clearly.
There are so many times when I can feel something but I can’t express it. I feel that there is language in this book that has given expression to some of these very personal feelings and in doing so has grounded me in the larger human experience. Even a line as simple as “sometimes we go on existing in a place even after we left it.” uses so few words to express a mountain of feeling.
Dave is reading Shantaram right now. He loves to torture me by reading excerpts. I demand that he stop. It makes me cringe. The language is florid and the writer is in love with his word count as much as he seems to be in love with himself.
Colum McCann is precisely the opposite. He is proof that you don’t need a lot of words to make it count. He delivers the story in sometimes spare, poetic language that allows you to feel and understand the moment for what it is. His language serves up the plain, raw experience that being human can often be.
In setting the story in 1974 he is able to cast the Twin Towers as a cultural icon before their terrible destruction. It also allows him to explore the impact of war on a city as complex as New York City where race and class issues are still unevenly resolved. And yet there are moments, as in when Gloria and Claire are able to set aside their obvious life differences and simply allow love to prevail that you realize that there is a kind of moving forward. That there is hope. That life can be beautiful. Like the image of the tightrope walker, life is beautiful and terrible and fragile.
You probably didn’t have to read this far to guess that I thought this was an amazing book.
Interview with Colum McCann
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged: Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin, Twin Towers, Shantaram, Let the Great World Spin Book Review
Tessa: Hi Mom, What are you doing?
Rosie: Hi Tessie, nothing. I’m doing nothing. Why? What do you expect me to be doing? Dancing?
Tessa: Uhhh, well, I don’t really know.
Rosie: What are you doing?
Tessa: Nothing.
Rosie: Oh.
Tessa: Do you have anything to say?
Rosie: No, not really.
Tessa: Okay bye, I love you.
Rosie: Yeah me too. Bye.
Tessa: I’ll call you later, we’ll talk more about nothing.
Rosie. Okie dokie!
Categories: Conversations with My Mother
Tagged: conversations about nothing, Conversations with My Mother
On my second date with Dave we spent a good part of our evening out-doing each other by detailing our love for condiments. “How much do you love mayo?” “THIS MUCH!” I screamed, ignoring the grill marks I was getting on my cheek from the outdoor heater. Seven years later I realize that Dave really does love condiments…all kinds from HP to French’s Mustard (I prefer Dijon) to Ranch and back again. Me, I love mayonaise, plain and simple.
The very best is the kind they put on those delicious fries in Holland. Now that’s tasty. The next best is Hellman’s.A different animal altogether but still terribly tasty is Japanese mayo. Absolutely not tolerated is anything called Miracle Whip or anything that is low fat.
Well, now that I’ve whipped myself up into a frenzy, I think I’m going to go and have myself some mayo! What’s your favourite condiment of all time?
Categories: Recipes · Where's my gonch & other stuff
Tagged: the best mayonaise in the world, what's your favourite condiment? love of mayonaise
Maybe this book reminds me too much of the publishing industry whence I came, or maybe it reminded me of Ian McEwan’s style of writing and then failed to deliver or maybe I just didn’t like the main character Daniel Fielding but whatever it was this book didn’t do it for me in spite of it’s titillating subject matter.
Daniel Fielding is a middle aged, happily married Toronto based editor who has an affair with a younger colleague on a business trip to London and Frankfurt. What starts out as a fling with a younger woman ends in violent tragedy turning Daniel’s safe life upside down.
What follows is his journey to redeem himself with his wife, daughter and his community. But the predictable emotional trajectory of this kind of story is overshadowed by the violence of the affair’s ending and the public attention it garners. Daniel’s quiet weekend tryst with a younger colleague becomes public fodder and the tragedy of her death overwhelms the moral transgression against his wife and family.
As Daniel seeks to atone to Denise’s family, the spectre of Denise’s death overshadows the betrayal of his wife and daughter.
The more interesting story for me would have been to tell the story from his wife’s point of view. How do you see yourself through this horrific moral maze to redemption and forgiveness? Daniel’s character seems vapid and weak to me. I don’t actually like him and his surprise that his wife can’t somehow forgive him quickly on the basis that he never cheated before in all their year’s of marriage somehow makes him more despicable. Better he had just been an all out cad. But then both of these options would have made this a different book altogether. Anyways, just not my cup of tea. I loved Clara Callan but didn’t really care for this read.
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged: The Adulterer, Richard Wright
“Learn how to die and you learn how to live.” This is the essential lesson Morrie Schwartz offers in a memoir of his final conversations between himself and his former student Mitch Albom.
Mitch Albom becomes reacquainted with his former college sociology professor after seeing him interviewed on Nightline with Ted Koppel. Morrie has agreed to allow Nightline to document his decline as he succumbs to the ravages of ALS. Albom jumps on a plane and reinitiates the relationship he had with Morrie sixteen years before. In a series of Tuesday conversations Morrie agrees to give Mitch his final lessons. This time though the subject is life and what it means to die.
What becomes apparent during these conversations is that ALS might break Morrie’s body but it can’t defeat his spirit which soars through this slim volume. The beauty of Morrie is that he peels life as if it were an onion unveiling its most essential elements…love, forgiveness, marriage, the world, community, and the ability to embrace the very best of life even as it slowly leaves you. In dying Morrie shows us what life is really about.
When Mitch asks him what he would do if his health could be restored for 24 hours Morrie explains that he would surround himself with his friends and family and indulge in conversation, he would inhale the beauty of his favourite pond, and his beautiful trees, he might dance and then he would go to his favourite restaurant. Mitch is shocked at how ordinary his last wish would be. But then that’s the beauty of Morrie. While the rest of us get lost in ambition and chasing the smoke dreams of a compulsive, empty consumer society, he chases love. It’s all about love. By giving yourself to love you give yourself to life. And that’s why even as he lay dying Morrie Schwartz was consumed with life.
What a great book.
Nightline video with Morrie
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged: Tuesday's with Morrie, Mitch Albom, conversations about dying
One of the great benefits of forced relaxation is that I had to time to hunt down the world’s best laksa recipe. Laksa is much easier to make then you might think. You make the paste first, prepare the rice noodles, and then the toppings. The toppings can include any combination of chicken, shrimp, tofu, finely minced coriander, bean sprouts, vietnamese mint, green onion and boiled eggs. A little taste of sambal on the side completes this very tasty soup. Keep reading →
Categories: Asian - Curries · Recipes
Tagged: laksa, singaporan laksa, malaysian laksa, asian curry noodle, eat brisbane laksa
I get a lot of my Asian recipes from an old cookbook that I’ve used for years called the All Asian Cookbook by Jacki Passmore
Last night I made fried chili prawns (Sambal Goreng Udang). This is a quick, super easy and tasty dish. I served it with basmati rice and steamed spinach but it could also be included in a larger Indonesian rijstijfe or served as a tapas. Keep reading →
Categories: Asian - Curries · Recipes
Tagged: Fried Chili Prawns, Sambal Goreng Udang, simple asian recipes
I don’t often read business books or even non-fiction for that matter. But I am very interested in social technology from both a personal interest as well as a business point of view. I have worked in an environment where leadership ranges from complete disinterest in social technology to a panicked “oh my god, we need to get on twitter, facebook, blogs, we have to launch a space” without any real thought about the how this applies to strategic goals or how this affects work flow. Keep reading →
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged: Charlene Li, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead
Warning: this salad is excessively delicious. Dave got this from Rouxbe online cooking which has fantastic recipes including instructional videos. This is a great salad to serve for special occasions or dinner parties. We’ve made it several times and it was a big hit. Keep reading →
Categories: Salads and Main Courses
Tagged: rouxbe instructional video, warm goat cheese salad
