Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann

I just started reading A Visit From the Goon Squad, per everyone's recommendation and felt compelled to endorse Let the Great World Spin, which I finished about a week ago. I'm only a few chapters into Egan's novel, but from what I've read so far, the two books seem to have a lot in common -- namely, 9/11 and multiple narrators that are somehow connected to each other. Maybe more! But I don't know yet; I just took a break from reading at a bar in Chelsea Market to write this review.

LTGWS Is primarily set in 1974 New York, on the day when that French guy walked on a tightrope between the twin towers (hell yeah, I saw "Man on Wire" but I don't remember his name; he's a character in this book and I still forget his name, sorry!). Basically every narrator's story spirals outward from (or collapses into) this crazy day in New York history. It's too bad that "man on wire" came out before this novel (I know he was kind of pissed about it), but at least he won a national book award, right?

I thought that McCann did an amazing job developing his female characters. I liked reading his lady the chapters the best, actually (sort of like how I liked Patty's chapter in "Freedom" the best). My favorite character in the book is Gloria, a black woman who loses all three of her sons in the Vietnam war and is smarter and more complicated than all of her white friends, but never lets on.

If you liked AVFTGS, then I'm pretty sure you'll be down with this book. I read it moderately fast (3 days?).