Lifting a Pint with Colum McCann

I'm marking the occasion of St. Patrick's Day by sharing with you a video that Tom shot in the ostensibly Irish pub at the bottom of our office tower. With apologies for the lively crowd noise, I think it's a pretty wonderful glimpse into the heart of the Dublin-born Colum McCann, whose mid-'70s New York story, Let the Great World Spin, draws illuminating parallels to our American era.

When we put it on our Top 10 Best Books of the Year... So Far list last July, McCann was just embarking on his tour, and he sent us a rare missive: he wanted to "break the threshold of cyberspace just to give this simple thanks" for welcoming his book and alleviating some of the "authorial vertigo that creeps up in the early days." He concluded with the wish that we'd "get the chance some time to meet in person so I can extend that handshake, and maybe even have a jar or two."

Needless to say, several of us jumped at the chance as he swung through Seattle a few weeks later. We had one of the most enjoyable author meetings I've ever had, some of which we taped to share with you. Then we all trooped up the street to the Seattle Public Library to hear him read (he's especially good, incidentally, at giving voice to regretful mothers, from Park Avenue to prostitute).

I should state for the record that this enjoyable raising of jars in no way influenced our decision to put Let the Great World Spin at the top of our Best Books of 2009 list. It's a brilliant book. But I will say that when I heard he'd won the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction, my happiness was both for the extended life of the book and for McCann, who seems to be as genuinely lovely a person as you'll ever meet.

Colum, we send you the best of Irish wishes: Le gach dea-ghui.