{"id":104,"date":"2010-04-05T19:34:38","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T19:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=104"},"modified":"2010-04-05T19:34:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-05T19:34:38","slug":"let-the-great-world-spin-by-collum-mccann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2010-04\/let-the-great-world-spin-by-collum-mccann\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Let The Great World Spin&#8221; by Collum McCann"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"file:\/\/\/U:\/My%20Documents\/Downloads\/f_mccann_cover.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/f_mccann_cover.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-105\" title=\"f_mccann_cover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/f_mccann_cover.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"165\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/f_mccann_cover.gif 165w, https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/f_mccann_cover-99x150.gif 99w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OK so I&#8217;m a little late to the game on this one (it&#8217;s out in paperback ferheavensake), but having just finished McCann&#8217;s National Book Award-winning <em>Let the Great World Spin<\/em>, my head is still spinnin&#8217;.\u00a0 As opposed to some of the winners in prior years, where you&#8217;re left scratching your head and wondering what the heck the jury was thinking, McCann&#8217;s book is a well-deserved winner.<\/p>\n<p>McCann has managed to weave disparate, well-wrought episodes into a larger whole that provides both a snapshot of an era in America&#8217;s life, but also an elegy of sorts to post-9\/11 America.\u00a0 And despite the inherent bereavement and loss, hope is shored up.\u00a0 Encouragement is given to choke back and choke up, with due acknowledgment that this life isn&#8217;t always fair.\u00a0 And beauty and comfort are found in the least likely of circumstances.\u00a0 That&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<p>Irish immigrant McCann also distinguishes himself well with his ability to convincingly inhabit a myriad of characters, regardless of their age, social station or race.<\/p>\n<p>With the foregoing as some backdrop, you get a brief taste from these excerpts:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s how it goes.\u00a0 Everything  flies through the windshield.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMake this world dark.\u00a0 Release me.\u00a0 Give me love, Lord, but not just  yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stumble on, now, we drain the light from the dark, to make it last\u2026. Sounds outside, growing clearer in the silence, traffic at first, machine hum, cranework, playgrounds, children, the tree branches down on the avenue slapping each other around.\u00a0 We stumble on\u2026, bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves.\u00a0 It is almost enough\u2026.\u00a0 The world spins.\u00a0 We stumble on.\u00a0 It is enough\u2026.\u00a0 The clock.\u00a0 The fan.\u00a0 The breeze.\u00a0 The world spinning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK so I&#8217;m a little late to the game on this one (it&#8217;s out in paperback ferheavensake), but having just finished McCann&#8217;s National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin, my head is still spinnin&#8217;.\u00a0 As opposed to some of the winners in prior years, where you&#8217;re left scratching your head and wondering what the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}