Not Exactly, Not Entirely, Not Love

Title: Day

Author: Michael Cunningham

Description taken from the book jacket:

 

April 5, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, husband and wife, are slowly drifting apart -- and both, it seems, are a little bit in love with Isabel's younger brother, Robbie. 

 

April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the cozy brownstone is starting to feel more like a prison. (Daughter) Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe...And, dear Robbie is stranded in Iceland.

April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality -- and with what they've learned, what they've lost, and how they might go on.

 

Insight and Opinions

 

As big fans of Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours, we were more than excited to dig in to his new work after a long wait. But our anticipation paled in comparison with how thrilled we were to welcome Faith, our long-lost compatriot, back into the book club fold.

Day bears some similarity to The Hours in that it unfolds in three parts, but instead of hours in a single day, the narrative takes place on the same date in each of three years.

+ Cunningham plays with the concept of "the love of one's life" here, with Robbie at the core. In an interview, when asked about why he references The Mill on the Floss, Cunningham says he used it because it's a novel about a brother and a sister who are the loves of each other's lives, which is what we have here. But Robbie occupies the same role with Isabel's husband Dan, as well as their daughter Violet. Jocey noted that, while this is clearly what the author wants the reader to understand, she needed more, to understand why everyone loved Robbie so.

+ Linda noted that what we do know about Robbie is that he's had three lovers, he has Wolf, his alter-ego who exists only on social media, and he did not receive the love he needed from his parents.

+ Lois was struck most strongly by Nathan, Isabel and Dan's son. "Everyone kept asking him how he was doing, but then none of them really waited to hear," she noted. At the end of the book, after Nathan immerses himself in the pond, it's Dan's brother Garth, whose peripheral life garners little respect from the rest of the family, who finds him and listens. To Steve, "Garth was insufficient and unreliable, but then with Nathan, he was astonishing."

+ What struck Liz about the book is that it is entirely interior. The reader learns about things that have already occurred, but you don't see them happen. Everything takes place within the minds of the characters. This style of writing is what turned Chris off, making it "not for me," she said. On the other hand, "This is the type of writing that made me go into literature," Linda said. Chris wondered why the book takes place on one date, each time a year apart. "I couldn't figure out why the characters advanced the way they did. And why did we have to know that the children picked a lousy spot to bury Robbie's ashes?" 

 

Fab lunch and our buddies in California Zooming in

+ Steve asked if we had a favorite character. To Margy, Robbie could not possibly be as good as he is made out to be. "I didn't like the characters, but I don't have to like them," she said. 

+ Linda noted that, in an interview, Cunningham stated that he wanted to write about the space between something happening and something else happening. He was aiming to strike a balance between "everything is fine" and "complete despair."

+ Cunningham's keenness of observation and understanding of human nature are a wonder. As Lois pointed out, this book is about love and not love. His prose is elegant, beautiful and nuanced. While none of us felt that Chess was a developed character, she has these thoughts about Garth, her "sperm donor" non-mate: "It would be easier if she were more innocent. It would be easier if she felt surer about the lines that separate pity from desire, and desire from rage. She does not love men. She does not love Garth. And yet something keeps shifting inside her, a queasiness that's not love but is not nothing and maybe, in its way, is not exactly, not entirely, not love."

Our Next Read

 

Our February book will be Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. at Liz's house. Get your copies now!