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Lark Benobi's Reviews > Day
Day
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There is such beauty here, and so many passages and pages that felt, as I read them, as if I were listening to the most perfect music, but on the other hand I never could imagine that the people in this novel were more than pretty constructs.
Here is what I mean.
Robbie's in love with Isabel and Dan, too. Or rather, he's in love with the restively joined singular creature they've become: Isabel's briskly knowing melancholia conjoined with Dan's unembarrassed optimism; her inner jumble of thwarted desires and his earnest if unreasonable expectations. Robbie's in love with the person they've created together--someone romantic, someone generous of heart, someone kind and gentle but wised-up and ironic, as well.
I personally just can't be persuaded that Robbie is thinking these things as he considers his relationships with his sister and his brother-in-law, but over and over again the book asks me to believe that people spend their lives deeply thinking about their relationships, and their interconnectedness with others, and that they seek constantly to define these relationships--that this is why we live.
All right. Maybe I can be persuaded that Robbie thinks he's in love with both his sister and his brother-in-law. Not really, though. And then: this passage asks so much more of me, to believe in the idea that Robbie goes on to think of the three of them together, as one being, a being that contains such particularities as his sister's "briskly knowing melancholia" (what is briskly knowing melancholia, anyway, I challenge you to tell me) combined with Dan's "unembarrassed optimism" (since when can 'optimism' be 'embarrassed?'), and well, after a while I was too exhausted to let this kind of writing ride.
The book is written on this level of intense self-awareness. No one ever just throws trash on the ground or drinks a warm beer because they forgot to put the six-pack in the fridge the night before. I either need to treat passages like this one as pretty, but inconsequential words, or I need to believe that these characters are having these intense kinds of thoughts all the time, these self-aware and self-absorbed thoughts, about how they feel and how they relate to every other character in the book.
The words were continuously and breathtakingly beautiful, but they didn't satisfy, because I wanted the words to matter more than they did.
Here is what I mean.
Robbie's in love with Isabel and Dan, too. Or rather, he's in love with the restively joined singular creature they've become: Isabel's briskly knowing melancholia conjoined with Dan's unembarrassed optimism; her inner jumble of thwarted desires and his earnest if unreasonable expectations. Robbie's in love with the person they've created together--someone romantic, someone generous of heart, someone kind and gentle but wised-up and ironic, as well.
I personally just can't be persuaded that Robbie is thinking these things as he considers his relationships with his sister and his brother-in-law, but over and over again the book asks me to believe that people spend their lives deeply thinking about their relationships, and their interconnectedness with others, and that they seek constantly to define these relationships--that this is why we live.
All right. Maybe I can be persuaded that Robbie thinks he's in love with both his sister and his brother-in-law. Not really, though. And then: this passage asks so much more of me, to believe in the idea that Robbie goes on to think of the three of them together, as one being, a being that contains such particularities as his sister's "briskly knowing melancholia" (what is briskly knowing melancholia, anyway, I challenge you to tell me) combined with Dan's "unembarrassed optimism" (since when can 'optimism' be 'embarrassed?'), and well, after a while I was too exhausted to let this kind of writing ride.
The book is written on this level of intense self-awareness. No one ever just throws trash on the ground or drinks a warm beer because they forgot to put the six-pack in the fridge the night before. I either need to treat passages like this one as pretty, but inconsequential words, or I need to believe that these characters are having these intense kinds of thoughts all the time, these self-aware and self-absorbed thoughts, about how they feel and how they relate to every other character in the book.
The words were continuously and breathtakingly beautiful, but they didn't satisfy, because I wanted the words to matter more than they did.
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Reading Progress
June 18, 2023
–
Started Reading
June 19, 2023
– Shelved
June 19, 2023
– Shelved as:
2023
June 19, 2023
–
4.4%
"I was thirsty for this kind of story, this particular, lush flavor of writing, and didn’t even know it. The novel begins with a gorgeous descriptive scene of a Brooklyn street at dawn and the way Cunningham lets it linger, lets me see and feel it, felt like a gift, or maybe more like finding a long forgotten photograph in a drawer and remembering that time so vividly. Mmm."
page
12
June 20, 2023
–
Finished Reading
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Pat
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Jun 21, 2023 09:16AM
Thanks for your review! This book sounds wonderful to me.
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I totally understand what you mean, Lark. I haven't read Cunningham before, but I know he's written many novels. I wonder if this is a departure for him, or if he always writes in this flowery, meaningless way? Weird.🥴
He does always write this way and sometimes it works beautifully, like when he was channeling Virginia Woolf in The Hours, and to be fair a lot of (most) readers are swept up in the prose in this novel, too. I was in the beginning. It was only later in the book when I began to feel the tremendous gifts Michael Cunningham has as a writer were allowing him to coast a little, in other respects, most glaringly for me in the need to create characters I could believe in.
Eugh... In love with his sister, and brother-in-law. It was possible upto the point where I read - sister!
I liked it more than you, but I absolutely see your point about the self-aware thoughts. Thought-provoking review!
Jill wrote: "I liked it more than you, but I absolutely see your point about the self-aware thoughts. Thought-provoking review!"Jill, I'm so sorry not to love it. I felt so energized by the opening scene of a Brooklyn street at dawn. I had so many thoughts about how writers don't take the time they need to set a scene like this any longer--and Cunningham is such a master. As soon as people started talking together I thought, oh, all right, he isn't perfect, this dialogue is charmingly unrealistic...but then little by little the way these people interacted just got less and less grounded in the way people really think and feel and however beautiful I didn't like it.
Overwrought is the perfect description of these folks and their whiny thoughts.
Great review, Lark. I was wondering if anyone I knew had read this and I found your review. I feel compelled to read this anyways since it's set on my birthday....
Exactly. Also, none of the characters were very likable.
You’ve got me wondering if optimism can be embarrassed. For an instant, I was certain I have felt that, but upon further reflection, maybe it’s actually retroactive - embarrassed of a previous optimism. Hmm hmm hmmm
You’ve got me wondering if optimism can be embarrassed. For an instant, I was certain I have felt that, but upon further reflection, maybe it’s actually retroactive - embarrassed of a previous optimism. Hmm hmm hmmm ."It is worth pondering. Seriously. Sort of. Or, probably not? --
At any rate, I personally ponder these things. To me, words matter. Their meanings matter.
If a writer writes "unembarrassed optimism" does it imply that the word "optimism," all on its own, and without a modifier, already contains the idea of "embarrassment?"
That is: is a state of embarrassment already contained in the meaning of the word "optimism", where, when you mean the kind of optimism that -isn't- embarrassed, you need to modify the word by preceding it with the word "unembarrassed?"
Thanks for drawing my attention to this latest Cunningham. Your comments about beautiful prose not weighted enough with meaning rings true for my own experience of his novels... Except the hours which I find near perfect. Will check this one out more closely when I can. Good review!
Alicia wrote: "Except the hours which I find near perfect. ..."I also loved Specimen Days, so strange and lovely (and I love Walt Whitman) (who doesn't!). This is a writer who, it seems, can write sentences that are effortlessly beautiful. I missed the meaning of it here, though.
The others I have read FYI are The Snow Queen and By Nightfall. By Nightfall being the better of the two.
Great review Lark! I like how you can describe an authors writing!
Oh thanks, Debbie. I seem to be a more literal reader than most people so be sure to check out Ron Charles’s stellar review.
Oh, I liked your review so much I'm following you now. This is very much how I felt and was trying to express in my own review of Day. The word that I was scared to say, but I think is true, in this case, at least is: 'overwritten'.
I just read Charles's review. He cites this as 'one of the most finely drawn children ... ever met in a novel'. But: 'She hopes that “a little girl’s rampant enthusiasms, voiced often enough, will drown out whatever low murmuring, ominous if unintelligible, she’s begun hearing, sometimes from under the bed, sometimes from inside a wall.� C'mon. What five-year-old speaks like this?
I’m in academia. And your point is completely valid . I feel the same way when reading emails sent by some English professors or other “scholars�. You can’t help but wonder what makes writers write the way they do. I think they like writing and then reading their writing out loud. It’s music to their ears. But theirs only. it just makes everyone else roll their eyes! LOL!
Fernanda, we’re a little different, because the language of this novel really is like music to my ears. It sounds so beautiful and complex. And, like music, it doesn’t convey specific literal meanings to my brain. Because it isn’t music, because it’s a novel, I wanted those literal meanings, along with the lyric musical beauty of the language.
I was curious about this one and knew I'd come to the right place to get the details about this book and your perspective, Claire. I'll start with "The Hours" instead.
The Hours is extraordinary. It also did this weird alchemy where it made Virginia Woolf accessible to me for the first time.
Wonderful review,, Lark!
Agree. Such good writing but it it feels hollow. Do 5 and 10 year kids really think and act the way they do in this book? Except maybe Robbie you don't feel any liking for any characters.
“Pretty constructs� as you describe the characters so adroitly in your opening paragraph. Authorial “constructs�, for sure. I’m not sure how “pretty� they are. Physically maybe, but not once you scratch the surface I fear.
Good review.
Jonathan wrote: "“Authorial “constructs�, for sure. .."Yes, I think this novel hit us similarly.
I adore both The Hours and Specimen Days and recommend them.
Yes! You put this so eloquently. I was a little tougher in my review. Overwritten diorama of a novel.
what nonsensical criticism. well that's how i think, on the daily, basically non-stop � the internal recitation that constitutes my person sounds very much like the passage you quoted as an example of 'overwritten' prose. i really don't understand what's problematic about it
You hit the nail on the head with the constructs comment Lark! Still beautiful writing but was a bit underwhelmed in the end regardless
I see your point about them all being so self-aware. And Violet beginning to learn how to do so.
Yes!! After finding VW unapproachable for years, I was able to read Mrs Dalloway after this and appreciate even more the intelligence and beauty of Cunningham's homage...but Mrs Dalloway helped me understand The Hours better as well. I have gone on from there to read all of VW's diaries and letter (and other Bloomsberyites), however, I have to admit I enjoy the non fiction better than the fiction. One other exception is Jacob's Room, a book you hear little about, but was VW's true break away into originality after the traditional narratives of The Voyage Out and Night and Day. Jacob's Room tells the story of Jacob from everyone's POV except his own. It's very atmospheric and clever giving Jacob a disembodied feeling. I could go on...but do read VW's diaries DO.Lark wrote: "The Hours is extraordinary. It also did this weird alchemy where it made Virginia Woolf accessible to me for the first time."
Thank you for this review! Your last paragraph expressed exactly how I felt as I read this book!
You’re welcome, Marsha. In a way I’m saying this incredible writer is someone I expect more from. Unfair, maybe, to expect each one of his novels to deliver piercing revelations the way The Hours did.
Do you mean “in love-in love� or just the usual brotherly love thing?�
There is no incest in this novel if that is what you’re asking but as to what ‘in love� means that would be up to each reader to decide I suppose.
On the topic of “unembarrassed optimism.� � The implication here is that Cunningham’s point of view asserts two things: A) In our modern times, to be optimistic, is also to be naïve or delusional or else something out of touch, thus even the purest optimism, genuine and authentic, comes with a “self-aware� degree of shame or embarrassment, or B) An optimist SHOULD feel embarrassed even if he or she does not, again, because perhaps for Cunningham, there is no realistic reason why a person would or should feel optimistic.
It’s interesting to ponder indeed. Good writing, especially poetic writing, should give us such things to ponder. I can imagine a character who possesses an “unembarrassed optimism,� and I will say that I’m both envious of such a person, and pity them as well.
Thanks, Morbid Swither. That makes sense.
“�.but they didn’t satisfy because I wanted the words to matter more than they did.� Thank you so very much for stating what I felt but couldn’t put in words!
I just closed this book without finishing day one, and came here for some validation. Thanks!
Great review. I agree. Beautiful writing that ultimately makes it difficult to believe in the characters. Somehow The Hours sidestepped this mistake and was simply marvelous.
Yes, thank you. The writing was exquisite but it was wasted on uninteresting characters in an uninteresting plot.
It was COVID! All we had was time to navel-gaze and consider our relationships and life choices.
This sums it up pretty well for me. Beautifully constructed, and forgettable.
Babak wrote: "This sums it up pretty well for me. Beautifully constructed, and forgettable."Some writers have such an innate talent for the rhythm and flex of the written word that they can soar on the page even if story itself is absent.
Well said! Thank you. Great review. I just needed a character to throw trash on the ground and for Violet to beg for the iPad while waiting for breakfast. I also didn’t find the characters sympathetic.
