One Potato Review

The basics of the story are a matter of historical record – Philippe Petit hung out his wire between what were then the tallest man-made structures in the world, and was promptly arrested for his impudence – but the details merit revisiting, and perhaps a little embellishing as well. Here Mordecai Gerstein describes the wire – 440 pounds of cable actually – and a couple of Petit’s conspirators (yes, he did have help) who were almost pulled overboard in the course of their preparations. It was just before dawn when Petit climbed out there, he actually stayed for a couple of hours, and even pretended to be napping at one point, before happily surrendering to custody. Finally, he was never imprisoned, but committed to performing his community service for children, which he allegedly did not mind, except when a couple of brats went pulling at his equipment, and he almost – anticlimactically – bit it. Still, what’s crucial to this story were the mornings Petit spent wondering over that skyline – and finally less about the towers than the shaft of wasted air between them. Certainly this is the gift, and often the curse, of inspiration – to look where no one else has thought – but then so is the urgency of seeing things through to completion in the limited time that we’re given.