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Somehow, I have managed to miss reading out on any of Michael Cunningham’s previous books. So, I was thrilled to get an ARC of Day. It’s an interesting concept, taking place on April 5th of 2019, 2020 and 2021. It covers the same family of brother, sister, her husband and their two young children, his brother and baby momma. Cunningham takes a microscope to the intimate lives of each of these five adults and two children, capturing their nuances. The adults are all dissatisfied with their lives, even before the pandemic. The men, in particular, didn’t seem to have their act together. While I loved the writing, I struggled with these whiny people, most of whom are all somewhat in love with each other. I just couldn’t come to care for them.
At times, Cunningham hits the nail on the head with an observation. “Relations with the parents of your kids� friends can be like those of rival dukes and duchesses, forced into civility solely because you belong to the same ruling class.� And at other times, I just was like, what? I just could not imagine a mother writing a letter to her daughter to be read 15 years in the future, spelling out all these issues, like how much weight she’s gained during the lockdown and how white people shouldn’t wear the color yellow. And Violet never seemed like a real little girl. Some of these folks seem to be living in parallel universes, their inability to recognize what the others are feeling/thinking drove me to distraction. How could they be so dense?
I did like that Cunningham focuses on a single day each year. It enables him to show the myriad changes that occur in their lives without having to detail each and every one. He totally got the other worldliness of the pandemic, when life was so totally uprooted. But overall, I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.