Day - Michael Cunningham

 Day - Michael Cunningham

Publication Date:  Nov. 14, 2023

She read

There are three parts to this novel, all taking place during one day, April 5, three years apart.  The first being 2019, the second 2020 during Covid (which is never mentioned by name) lockdown, the final one year later.  As the novel opens, Isabel works at a magazine but is not on solid ground emotionally or with her marriage. Dan, her husband, is a never has been rock singer and house husband to their children, Violet and Nathan.  Robbie, her brother,  rounds out the household and provides some cohesion to the family.  Other characters are Garth, Dan’s brother and sperm donor to Chess, and baby Odin.

This is a novel of love and loss, claustrophobia, finding one’s self. The prose is beautiful.  Cunningham’s insight into the world of children is uncommonly astute. I think he provides the best description of the world of a 17 month old that I have ever read. I liked that Cunningham is cognizant that despite all the negatives that came from a year of being sequestered, there were some positives such as Isabel having the opportunity to really get to know and appreciate her daughter.  

So many of our lives were affected and continue to be by the pandemic.  I tend to wonder how one can write a contemporary novel without acknowledging it.  Cunningham keenly recognizes the impact during those lockdown months and the aftereffects that changed many of our lives.  This is a welcome  read for aficionados of literary fiction. 

Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhouse for the ARC.

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