Let the Great World Spin

I've apparently been on a contemporary Irish literature kick this year, as two books so far fall into that category (Colm Toibin's Brooklyn and this one by Colum McCann). This novel comprises vignettes of several very different individuals who are all connected by two events within the same few days in New York City: one being a car crash, the other, the tightrope walk that took place between the World Trade Center towers August 7, 1974.
The book basically retells the same two stories from each character's point of view, but because of how McCann's writing style with each retelling embodies that of the character as they would be telling it, and because we get different perspectives and bits of information that we can then piece together ourselves, it never gets boring and nothing feels repetitive or even repeated, for that matter. There is no struggle to make every character congenial or even sympathetic. Instead, we get distinctly complex, distinctly human actions, emotions, thoughts that are sometimes downright unlikable. There's a lack of judgment from the author in spite of the clearly stated moral convictions of the characters that leaves it up to the reader to decide how they feel about each person they "meet" and each story they share. It is clear early on that some of the narrators are a little unreliable (whether they are uninformed or biased) but together, their stories flesh out the big picture really well.
What I really liked was how each character's views built upon and colored the stories of the previous ones, adding bits of information (and a lot of misinformation--which I *really* liked...it leaves the reader saying "wait now, that's not right..." fun, fun, fun!) without feeling like anything was set up. It wasn't different precise perspectives/accounts of the exact same things over the few days; it was how their lives were and how they were changed, it was where they were and what they were doing, on their own. The reader merely gets a peek into their heads and what they were thinking. There's no interrogation or prompting questions, almost like (and even more candid at times than) narrative journal entries.
Let the Great World Spin was also extremely descriptively rich. From the way one character notices another holding their teacup, to the way graffiti looks in a subway after dark, something unique to each characters senses is conveyed to the reader's absolute delight.
This is a book I plan to reread at least once. I want to see what I've missed in little details and how they relate to understanding the situations and characters as a whole, getting just a little deeper into their heads and the events as they were. I read it largely because it's the store's staff bookclub this time around, but I would recommend it to just about anybody. It's funny and heartbreaking without being too sappy. The way it's written, with all the vignettes, makes it easy to put down and pick back up if you're someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to sit down and read an entire novel in one go (also why I like short stories when I'm busy).