There is a great profile in this week’s Times Magazine on the author Colum McCann, his new book TransAtlantic, and his recent trip to Newtown, CT, where he discussed his last book – Let the Great World Spin – with grieving high school students. I love Great World. I love how McCann believes the best writers try to become “alternative historians.” And I love how this piece, itself beautifully written, takes a serious look at empathy, a trait intrinsic to much of our best literature and history:
On the day we went to Newtown, he escorted us from room to room, introducing McCann and then letting the kids guide the discussions from there. McCann talked a bit about his life in Ireland and the bike trip across America that was so formative. He told them about an organization he recently helped found, Narrative4, which brings together kids from different places — sometimes directly contentious places, sometimes just places with their own hardships — and how over a span of days the kids pair off, one from each place, and exchange the story that most defines who they are. At the end of their time together, they tell the stories to the larger group, taking on the persona of their partner — an exercise, McCann said, in “radical empathy.”
I take a lot of shots at mainstream journalism, but it’s worth noting that some of our best prose is still being published in traditional forums. This is one of those times. You should read the whole piece, especially to the end.
