Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann

 

"The world spins.  We stumble on.  It is enough."  In this novel set in 1970's New York City, the characters do what they can to make their way through life.  There is Corrigan, an Irish priest who has come to America and taken as his mission the prostitutes of Brooklyn.  His brother Ciaran comes to talk Corrigan into coming home but is unsuccessful.  Corrigan has fallen in love with a South American refugee he met at the senior home he volunteers with.  

There are the prostitutes that Corrigan tries to help, in particular and mother-daughter pair, Tillie and Jazzlyn.  Jazzlyn has two small daughters and when the two are arrested, Tillie will take the blame so that the girls have a mother.  The judge in the case has lost his son in Vietnam.  His wife Claire meets with a group of women, all of them with lost sons from the war and becomes best friends with Gloria, an African American woman who lost three children to the war.  But Gloria will have another chance at motherhood and love.  

All of these characters have some connection to a man who walks a tightrope between the Two Towers one morning.  He just doesn't walk, he runs, he hops, he lays down and stands back up.  His walk entrances and gives hope to all who see it.  

Colum McCann is an Irish writer now living and working in New York.  This nove won the National Book Award and his work has won many other awards.  The people in this book seem to have little to make a life from and have been beaten down by events.  Yet there is always a small spring of hope and that small hope allows them to move on in life and take joy where it is found.  It is an inspiring work that leaves the reader more content with their life and ready to take on what is coming.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.