I finished
reading Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin". I came away thinking it was masterful. Colum is one of us New Yorkers; he captures the city from within the heart of
the town, not as an outside observation (ick). In this piece for The New York Times, McCann writes of the dog
days of baseball in New York, expressing a very spiritual sentiment for such an Earth-based game.
To finish a book
such as this is to end a poetic journey that makes you want to linger over the
last dozen pages longer. You identify with the spirit of the book, with the
character, and you wish you could be pals with the author (a la "The Catcher in the Rye") because they are the only connection to this world of
which no one else has ever seen. I might mention that moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize everyone is just carrying on with their lives as though you didn't just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback.
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| Random House, published 2009 |
"Let the Great
World Spin" belongs to the newly forming genre of post-9/11 arts, literature, and music. Post-9/11 is a largely retrospective genre. I
would define it as an art made as a reaction to or influenced by the events of
September 11, directly or indirectly. The films "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close",
"The Hurt Locker", and to an extent (one of my favorites with George
Clooney) "Up in the Air", as well as the books "Three Cups of
Tea" and "Someday this Pain Will Be Useful to You", and several
pieces by the American composer Rene Clausen are all considered a part of post-9/11 art. So is the children's book and Caldecott Award recipient "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers", which in fact is related to McCann's novel. It is quite amazing to see this
timely thematic genre form within the dawn of my lifetime.
The arts created in
response to September 11 I perceive to be usually unafraid to reveal the brokenness of the
world. We have become distrustful of each other on the outside as we line up at
airport security checks, walk past each other in the city at night, or wear apparel
of cultural nature, be it the hijab or a chained cross. But within ourselves we know we want to trust
our neighbor, we want to embrace anyone else who seeks peace.
