The book is a compilation of fictional short stories all which are set in New York City. They are all connected in some way to the true story of Philippe Petit a french man who walked a tightrope wire between the World Trade Center twin towers on August 7, 1974. They also connect to each other to give a picture of the people that make up the city during that time period.
I am fascinated by the structure of the book and am sure that it is meaningful but have not been able to put the pieces together quite yet. I am also intrigued by the chapter titles but am still deciphering these as well.
THOSE WHO SAW HIM HUSHED
Philippe
5 pages
The city gathers. Hold your breath.
Book one
ALL RESPECTS TO HEAVEN, I LIKE IT HERE.
Corrigan
60 pages
He is the one I remember most. The kingdom of Heaven here on earth. He holds on in faith long after belief is gone. Human connection. “Corrigan liked those places where the light was drained… Corrigan told me once that Christ was quite easy to understand. He went where he was supposed to go. He stayed where he was needed. He took little or nothing along, a pair of sandals, a bit of shirt, a few odds and ends to stave off the loneliness. He never rejected the world. If He had rejected it, He would have been rejecting mystery. And if He rejected mystery, He would have been rejecting faith. What Corrigan wanted was a fully believable God, one could find in the grime of the everyday. He wanted quite simply for the world to be a better place and was in the habit of hoping for it. “Someday the meek might actually want it,” he said. Yet he needed space for his doubt. He said he’d rather die with his heart on his sleeve than end up another cynic. PEACE and JUSTICE on the doorbell.
MIRO MIRO ON THE WALL
Claire
41 pages
She lives bound to the past, forever returning to her son lost at war. Plagued by superficial, petty, real fears. Money is not enough, it cannot buy friends, cannot bring back the dead. Second guessing. Where is her place? What has she done with her life? Coping. She holds eternal heaviness. It seems easier when shared. Who cares about the guy walking in the sky.
A FEAR OF LOVE
Lara.
41 pages
When you build on drugs, sex and “art” what is left when the mirage melts. Skipping from one party to another. No plan, no reserve. Start over. The past is still there and still empty. Turning point. Car accident. It wasn’t out fault they died, was it? Can’t go on, can’t pretend anymore. Guilt. Need to make things right. Ciaran Corrigan. Connection in grief. New start.
LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN FOREVER DOWN
Philipppe
7 pgs
The walk. “The whole August morning was blown right open.”
Book two
TAG
Jose
17 pages
Purpose. To capture the obscure tag. “The thing that oils the hinges of his day.” The art of the ghetto.
ETHERWEST
Samuel
22 pages
Young alone. The beginning of the cyber world. Thin connectedness over telephone wires.
THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT HOURSE BUILT
Tillie
38 pages
You see how it happens. It is not the plan, the stroll. Not me, not my baby. Then it is there and there is no way out. Pride, dignity and survival.
THE RINGING GROOVES OF CHANGE
Philippe
6 pages
What came before. Planning, preparation and practice.
Book Three
PART OF THE PARTS
Solomon
27 pages
The judge. Claire’s husband. Ideals vs reality. Glamour removed. Justice, a broken system. The slide that makes the world go round. The common and the grandiose collide. Tillie, Jazzlyn, Corrigan and Philip.
CENTAVOS
Adelita
11 pages
The doctor that would have been. Here she is just an aid for the elderly. Mother, lover. Magical moments, the ones we come back to to make it through. Presence and loss. Burried in the masses. Butterfly tatoo just to remember that there is life outside of the concrete jungle. She made him come alive. She was loved, treasured.
ALL HAIL AND HALLELUJAH
Gloria
39 pages
All things are not equal for blacks and whites, not now, not yet, not for a while to come. Loving up bringing, she could have been great. Bad choices, too late, one thing leads to another. Alone, three sons to raise. Public housing. Listen to opera to forget. Religion is gone. Can’t go home. Boys stolen by war. Grief bridges the racial gap, it is enough. Claire. Picking up the pieces for others. Rescue the orphan babies born in a brothel. There is still meaning and purpose. Time to go home.
Book four
ROARING SEAWARD AND I GO
Jaslyn
24 pages
The baby grown up. Present day. So many stories come together. Born to Jazzlyn. Raise by Gloria. “Niece” of Claire. Visits Ciaran, brother to Corrigan who is married to Lara. Redemption, complication, struggle. Rescued from the cycle of the poverty, from the “stroll.” Searching, for meaning, identity, understanding of the past. She is the future. The thread of connection is pulled tight.
Finally what is their connection to the “Man on wire.” Corrigan is distracted by him at the time of this death. Claire is annoyed and hurt that he steals the attention of her friends and husband. For Lara he is but a detail in the day that changed her life, the accident, the point of grief and no return. For Jose and Samuel he is just a guy, impressive but soon to be forgotten in their adolescent minds. Tillie shares his courtroom unaware of his glamour as she heads out to pay time for a lifetime of bad decisions, caught in the vortex of sex trade that can only rarely be escaped. For Solomon he was a sparkle in an otherwise mundane existence. For Adelita he was the distraction her lover’s mind as he passed, some puzzle to be deciphered from a dying man’s lips. For Gloria a story told by friends. And for Jaslyn he was a connection to her mother.
And so it is for us. We share the world. We witness the same events and they affect us very differently. Brushing encounters with people in our every day lives don't allow us to understand the depth or their stories. We cannot see how they are connected to our own. Yet the connections are there and they are not incidental. There is a plan.
