. It won the National Book Award, for those of you who care about things like that. It seemed to make everyone's top ten list as well last year. I got it for Christmas and the poor thing sat abandoned on my bookshelf until just a few weeks ago. I was very excited to finally pick it up.Set during the time when Phillippe Petit made his famous tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, the books follows the lives of several strangers in a serious of separate stories that eventually become intertwined. I was hooked by the fourth paragraph, when the author describes the New York scene as the city pauses to collectively look up in awe at the tiny figure walking on air far above them:
"Around the watchers, the city still made its everyday noises... A flying chocolate wrapper touched against a fire hydrant. Taxi doors slammed. Bits of trash sparred in the darkest reaches of the alleyways. Sneakers found their sweetspots. The leather of briefcases rubbed against trouserlegs. A few umbrella tips clinked against the pavement. Revolving doors pushed quarters of conversation out into the street."
"Revolving doors pushed quarters of conversation out into the street." Sigh. One of my new favorite lines. Sometimes writing like this seems as unattainable to me as walking a thin line 110 stories up. But it's good to have something to reach for, don't you think?
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