![]() ![]() It’s not a talent unique to McCann, of course. Except that in the hands of a novelist as skilled as McCann, it’s not: the wonder of this opening chapter is that his language, his close observation, his sense of the lives behind the history, will make even an aviation buff hold his breath. Even if a reader doesn’t know that Alcock and Brown did indeed make it across the ocean, these days it takes only 10 seconds to Google their names, and the story’s spoiled. The novelist who takes on not just history but famous historical events has a hard row to hoe. John’s in Newfoundland all the way to Ireland. The year is 1919, just after the end of the First World War: “It was that time of the century when the idea of a gentleman had almost become myth.” The war, McCann writes, had “concussed the world.” And yet here are two gentlemen, Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown, ready to set off in a modified bomber, a Vickers Vimy - “It looked as if it had borrowed its design from a form of dragonfly” - to fly the Atlantic, from St. Colum McCann’s new novel, “TransAtlantic,” lifts off with a roar. ![]()
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