Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann - Book Review

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Set in the late summer of 1974, Colum McCann’s novel is the story of lives that touch and the centre of the story is Petit’s high wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. The character’s seemingly disparate stories are interwoven around that walk.

There’s Corrigan the Irish monk who lives among prostitutes and drug dealers in the Bronx and his brother Ciaran who comes to visit and struggles to understand his younger brother and what motivates him. Have to say I couldn’t understand either of them. There are the prostitutes Jazzlyn and her mother, Tillie, struggling to survive in a world of drugs and violence, a group of mothers whose sons have died in Vietnam have formed to mourn their sons and support each other but find that too much divides them. An artistic, wealthy and decadent couple complete the list of characters and their actions have a great impact on the lives of other characters.

I’ll come clean at this point and admit that it didn’t take me long to realise this book just wasn’t my cup of tea! I had read glowing descriptions and reviews about it, so I kept going. All those others couldn't be wrong. Could they? However if I hadn’t been reading it to review I would have given up by page 31.

Why didn’t I like it. Well maybe I wasn’t in the right mood to read this book, I was feeling quite down due to family worries. I have to say that very few of the characters interested me and I found the themes and language depressing. I will admit that at times I found his writing absolutely beautiful. His descriptions of the training that Petit did were wonderful but I found I couldn’t get interested in the tightrope walker at all. There was nothing elicited about the character, only his tightrope walking.

The stories of the various characters varied significantly but I found nearly all of them depressing and a couple seemed totally irrelevant. The first story which set up the main tragedy of the book started really well with the two Irish brothers growing up in Dublin. However very soon it descended in to gloom and darkness, with the characters’ lives full of drugs, prostitution and death in New York. I would never have got beyond this part of the book if left to myself. Two of the stories just bored me, the photographer riding the subway and the computer hackers. There were touches of humour but not enough of them to lighten the novel for me. I sound as though all I want from a book is happy characters and a happy ending, I don’t. One of my favourite books is Captain Correlli’s Mandolin. That book reduced me to tears at times but then within minutes I was laughing my head off and the characters were so full of life. Let The Great World Spin just didn’t move me at all.

Still I plodded on reminding myself that luckily once I had finished, I had a PG Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster book and a couple of the wonderful Patrick O’Brian novels about Aubrey and Maturin to lift my spirits. As I said earlier maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for this book and I should try it again when I'm in a more positive mood.

View all my reviews on Goodreads >>

Post No 155

Woe is Me! Post 152

I’m a real misery today. I’ve just waved off my daughter and her family who are off on holiday to Rhodes. So why am I miserable? Well we booked this family holiday a year ago and have looked forward to it since then.

We go on holiday every year with them and it’s wonderful. Mornings getting up to lovely sunshine and going to breakfast with them. Days lazing by the pools, swimming with my grandchildren, games, wandering around the shops in old Rhodes Town, lovely meals as a family and no washing up! It’s bliss. I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren especially on holiday, so I'm going to miss them so much.

This year however it feels like there’s been a curse on it. There were the flight problems with the volcanic ash cloud and then the troubles in Greece caused by their failing economy and closure of their airports. However these pale into insignificance in comparison with our family problems. My husband had to have a serious operation a few weeks ago and it will take him a long time to recover. It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t been blogging and also I have no energy. Things like this help you get things into perspective.

Well I had a few tears after they left about what we’re missing but I’m thankful Eric will hopefully make a good recovery and we can all have a holiday together next year. I’m also thankful that the ash cloud problems are less, the problems in Greece have subsided and my family are all well and are going to have a lovely holiday.

It’s going to be a long fortnight without them and a long year until I see this lovely view again.

Kalithea Bay

The Wireless - Post 151

Source: Wiki Commons

The word wireless means something totally different today to what it meant to me when I was growing up. It's an adjective today, when I was little it was a noun. The wireless was what's called radio today. Well most people call it radio. I don't, mostly I still call it the wireless.

I started wondering why it was called a wireless when it still had wires. So I looked it up and found some interesting stuff about it.

Apparently there's confusion over who invented radio, which at the time was apparently called wireless telegraphy, so understandably they shortened it to "wireless".

"Radio is the wireless transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light."

However, it still needed to be plugged in!

When I was little we used to listen to the wireless all the time, well we didn't have a telly until after the Coronation in 1953. Even after that we still listened to the wireless a lot as the telly programmes were only on in the evening.

My memories of listening to the wireless are mainly of Sundays after we'd been to church. Mam would be preparing the Sunday dinner, (we didn't call it lunch) and the wireless was always tuned to the BBC Light programme, (now Radio 2). The sounds and the smells of those Sundays are some of my strongest and happiest memories of my youth.

First was Two Way Family Favourites which had started life as Forces Favourites. It was a great request programme with Jean Metcalfe and Cliff Mitchelmore. There were other presenters but those two are the ones that stay in my mind. It must have had the most famous introduction to a British radio programme ever:

"The time in Britain is twelve noon, in Germany it's one o'clock, but home and away it's time for Two-Way Family Favourites".

Take a trip down memory lane with that famous theme music "With a Song in My Heart".

Don't know why they don't resurrect it again for the forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Would go down a treat. Crumbs, I nearly said bomb!

There were other programmes such as The Billy Cotton Band Show and The Clitheroe Kid. However my favourite out of all of them was Round The Horne. I laughed 'til I cried listening to this.

It was absolutely wild and brilliant comedy, written by Marty Feldman and Barry Took. I'm sure the Python Team must have been influenced by it.

Rambling Syd Rumpold was one of my favourites. Here's a video clip of Kenneth Williams on the Michael Parkinson Show. He's one of the funniest people I've ever seen or heard. However I still think it was funnier on the wireless where you had to imagine all the visuals.

I think we laughed because we couldn't understand half of it. The double entendres went right over our heads. I wonder if that's how it got past the powers that be in the BBC. My Mam would have turned it off if she had understood what they were saying. We were obviously very naive back then. I grew up pretty clueless as she always switched off the telly if anything even slightly risque came on.

Here's an example of what now seems very rude. It's Julian and Sandy ( Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick) with Keep Britain Bona. Very topical with the General Election coming up!

It could never be broadcast now, too politically incorrect, although you can buy the CDs. Not all of the stuff is so rude. There's a brilliant skit on the BBC where they recruit Kenneth Williams for a BBC job. Great to listen to when you're bored. Maybe sitting in an airport? Really makes me laugh 'til I cry, partly through nostalgia no doubt.

I really miss those Sundays and the two Kenneths, bless them. Thank goodness for the wireless, it takes me back to a really happy time. I often wish I could go back there, just for the day.

Post 151

Update Your Secret Word

Have you got this message?

To prevent abuse, a recent update to Mail2Blogger disabled easily guessable secret words. Please update your Mail2Blogger secret word.

I see it when I go to the Blogger Dashboard. It's been there a couple of weeks now and it has me flummoxed.

I'm surmising it's to do with emailing stuff to publish direct to the Blog. However the secret word thingy has me baffled. I've never set anything up as I don't use this feature. So why do I see the message? Maybe they just post it willy nilly on everyone's Blog.

Does anyone know whether we can get rid of the message or do we have to wait until Blogger decides to remove it?

Knitted Chairs? Post 150

This is beginning to turn into a knitting blog. Not deliberately, it’s just the way things are panning out.

I kid you not,knitted chairs do exist. I'm not going totally ga ga just yet. Well they're knitted covers really.

Seems like a new art form to me. They even have a website dedicated to them. It’s brilliant. If you don't believe me take a look Knitted Chairs. Here's a designer one. I'd love a chair like this. It's gorgeous.

Can you believe there’s even a Knit a Chair Day in London. Take a look at last year's here on You Tube.

It's a very environmentally friendly idea. Who'd have thought you could turn ordinary plastic garden chairs into works of art.

Are you up for it?

Well here’s the link to the pattern for the chair in the top picture.

In the meantime need a tune to knit to?

Post 150

Hand Knitted Socks? - Post 149

Now I've never understood the craze for knitted socks. Hand knitted ones I mean. I hadn't realised they were popular until I started looking at knitting patterns on the Internet. I thought they had died a death in the 'forties when women had to wear them because they couldn't get stockings. Well the alternative was painting that seam line up the back of their legs!

I always hated the feel of wool on my feet when I was little. I could feel the pattern of the knitting digging into the soles of my feet and they made my shoes and boots feel tight.

Even if the hand knitted socks are fine and made of 3ply wool, you have to wear a size bigger shoe. They're probably good with wellies, but as I don't ever wear wellies I've never felt the urge to knit socks. I know you can buy really soft wools and cottons now but if I wear socks, they have to be thin cotton ones.

I came across these free patterns for celebrity socks today. You can choose from Stephen Fry's QI socks, Rick Stein & Chalky or Alan Titchmarsh. So take a look and you can download the patterns free.

Well I fell in love with the Alan Titchmarsh Fantasy socks. I never wear slippers so I could wear these socks around the house. Mind you I'll still need another pair of thin cotton socks underneath!

Post 149

Free Easter Chick and Egg Pattern - Post 148

Looking for an Easter Egg pattern? There's a really sweet one on the Alan Dart website which you still have time to knit. It has a chick in it and it's free to download here.

I have to say I looked at other toy patterns on this site and there are some great patterns there. The tooth fairy is brilliant and the star spangled bantam cracked me up. I think the snowflake angel might be on my Christmas tree next year and if you have a Westie, how could you resist knitting Wesley with a little tartan coat.

Post 148