that image is beautiful. you've seen man on a wire, right?
i started this book forever ago and completely forgot that i hadn't finished it until i read this (which is not rare for me in my gradschool life, sadly). but i had the exact same ambivalence about it. i was loving it at first, and then i was "eh." but it was that paragraph that was a whole list of "death by x, death by y, death by z. . . " that irritated me to the point of not wanting to finish (though i did read a bit further). it felt like an exercise. and not an interesting one. and then the whole book sort of felt that way. the formula of taking all these seemingly unconnected and supposedly irresolvable different characters and showing how all their lives are interconnected is actually an interesting project, and one that makes a lot of sense in light of the 9/11 implications. but it's been done better before. this one didn't seem to have anything particularly new to it. nor did i feel invested in the characters, which didn't help.
I haven't seen it, but this book certainly piqued my interest in it. I felt like one of the things that McCann did best was capturing the beauty of what Petit did and the crazy wonder it inspired in people who saw him.
You're totally right about that "Death by..." paragraph. I felt like it was supposed to carry all kinds of emotional weight, but ended up just being a chore to read. The copy that I read had one of those "Book Club Discussion Guides" in the back, and even though I usually find those aggravating, I took a look at it. McCann made a comment there about how, in the days and weeks after 9/11, he really *felt* the interconnectedness of everyone in New York, with a few examples from his own life. And it just seemed like that one paragraph was a perfect distillation of the idea, whereas the whole 350 pages of the book just diluted it.
I actually didn't read the post since I'm planning on reading the book soon and I don't want my perception to be coloured by it. But I'll return when I've read the book :)
Do a google image search for Philippe Petit--I found so many wonderful pictures of his World Trade Center walk that it was hard to choose which one to post!
Please do come back once you've read it. I'd love to know what you think.
I haven't read the book, but I did see Man On Wire and I found it kind of annoying. The tightrope walker seemed really full of himself and the act itself seemed more like an act of ego than to really inspire anyone else--of course, if it had I'm sure he would have been basking in the glory of all that.
If you're interested, I found it on the netflix instant streaming option. It's short, but the first five minutes of it really grated on me; the guy seems like a dick :-/
If the book had more events mentioned that did NOT revolve around male ego, maybe there would have been more of a balance? Just a thought ;) Books never "sing for me" if I'm being talked AT, you know what I mean??
I think it's possible that, in terms of this particular feat, the only person who could do it was the person who did do it. It seems to me like a unique confluence of vision and perfectly honed skill.
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i started this book forever ago and completely forgot that i hadn't finished it until i read this (which is not rare for me in my gradschool life, sadly). but i had the exact same ambivalence about it. i was loving it at first, and then i was "eh." but it was that paragraph that was a whole list of "death by x, death by y, death by z. . . " that irritated me to the point of not wanting to finish (though i did read a bit further). it felt like an exercise. and not an interesting one. and then the whole book sort of felt that way. the formula of taking all these seemingly unconnected and supposedly irresolvable different characters and showing how all their lives are interconnected is actually an interesting project, and one that makes a lot of sense in light of the 9/11 implications. but it's been done better before. this one didn't seem to have anything particularly new to it. nor did i feel invested in the characters, which didn't help.
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You're totally right about that "Death by..." paragraph. I felt like it was supposed to carry all kinds of emotional weight, but ended up just being a chore to read. The copy that I read had one of those "Book Club Discussion Guides" in the back, and even though I usually find those aggravating, I took a look at it. McCann made a comment there about how, in the days and weeks after 9/11, he really *felt* the interconnectedness of everyone in New York, with a few examples from his own life. And it just seemed like that one paragraph was a perfect distillation of the idea, whereas the whole 350 pages of the book just diluted it.
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I actually didn't read the post since I'm planning on reading the book soon and I don't want my perception to be coloured by it. But I'll return when I've read the book :)
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Please do come back once you've read it. I'd love to know what you think.
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If you're interested, I found it on the netflix instant streaming option. It's short, but the first five minutes of it really grated on me; the guy seems like a dick :-/
If the book had more events mentioned that did NOT revolve around male ego, maybe there would have been more of a balance? Just a thought ;) Books never "sing for me" if I'm being talked AT, you know what I mean??
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I'm Richard, pleased to meet you. Add?
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