From the Dublin Bay in Ireland to the projects in Bronx, New York, Let the Great World Spin has taken me from one end of the Atlantic to the other. The prologue of the book sets you up almost above the World Trade Center in 1974, around the time the novel takes place. You are watching Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the two towers. To me, this represents the bridging of two worlds and two brothers, Carian and Corrigan. These two brothers grew distant at one point and lived two different lives. One joined a monastery and moved to the Bronx where he thought he could help the “lost souls”, while another took up a normal life. The prologue can also represent the joining of the two brothers and those in the Bronx projects (prostitutes, the pimps, drug addicts).
This chapter took me on an emotional rollercoaster. From when Corrigan was young and helping the homeless and addicts in Dublin, to when we learn he leaves his door open for the women to use between clients in the Bronx left me in awe. Corrigan takes beatings from pimps and continues to leave his door open for the women knowing the consequences. For this, he is the most interesting character to me. He is a man with a history of helping others, but for also getting mixed up in what they to do.
The most baffling part of the chapter to me was the car accident. After Corrigan went to pick her up from jail, he got rear ended and Jazzlyn went flying out of the car and died on impact. Corrigan is taken to the hospital and when Adelita (his love affair with her took me by surprise) visits him, announces that he sees something beautiful. Could this be heaven?
