TO REACH THE CLOUDS

TITLE: TO REACH THE CLOUDS

AUTHOR: PHILLIPE PETIT

Pages: 227

Date: 28/11/2009

Grade: 4.5
Borrowed from a friend and bookclub member

This is the story of the morning in August 1974 when Phillipe Petit managed to connect the not yet completely finished Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York with a wire and walk from one tower to the other, not just once, but several times.
Petit tells of the first time he saw a picture of the towers and how the idea was born, only to subsequently turn into an obsession.
We read about the preparations, the set backs, all he ways in which the project should have failed, and the ultimate triumph that was his walk across the wire.
Petit, as portrait by himself, is not a nice person, but then I suppose only someone completely obsessed with himself and his dream could conceive of and successfully pull of a coupe like this.
This book was written in English, but at several points in the story the French background of the author shone through. I'm glad that wasn't edited away because it adds to the authenticity of the story.
This was a fascinating book which would have been highly unbelievable had it been fiction. it was also a great follow-up to Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin." (Click here to read my review.)