Michael Cunningham--who's mastered slice-of-life literary fiction, as in his breakout success, The Hours--once again elevates the commonplace and makes it important. This quiet, thoughtful novel is a cross section of the lives of two brothers in the early 21st century, both caught between possible miracles and dying dreams.
Tyler and Barrett share a bond even deeper than that of most siblings: before she died when they were young, their mother separately cautioned each of them to watch over the other. "That may have been when they took their vows: We are no longer siblings, we are mates, starship survivors, a two-man crew wandering the crags and crevices of a planet that may not be inhabited by anyone but us." Now grown, both brothers struggle with their own demons. Barrett left a promising PhD. program to pursue dreams of a less-conventional future that never materialized. Instead, he lives with Tyler, a musician struggling to find inner genius and a fan base, and Beth, Tyler's beloved, terminally ill fiancée. When he spies what he believes to be a sentient green light over the park, Barrett uncharacteristically keeps it secret from Tyler, who in turn has a secret or two of his own.
Cunningham adds the vaguest echoes of the titular frosty fairy tale as grace notes to this story of the mundane and the miraculous. His acutely accurate metaphors cast an everyday action or movement into a new light as he gently untangles the overlapping relationships among brothers, lovers and friends. While questions about the existence and impact of miracles occasionally surface, Cunningham's overall theme is love's transience: whether due to death, time or carelessness, love slips away no matter how hard humans try to hold onto it. Worked into the mix are the malaise of youthful potential fading into an aimless middle age and the panicked prophesying of political apocalypse surrounding the past two presidential elections. Over everything hangs the pall of grief, particularly for Beth, whose terminal prognosis and slow wasting away puts her loved ones into a state of mourning even while she still walks with the living.
Whether taking readers along on an ecstatic drug trip or picking over the fine line between creative genius and maudlin tripe, Cunningham's masterful eye for human observation leads the way. Once again, he shows his talent for picking away the crust of familiarity and revealing the diamond brilliance at the heart of every moment of our lives. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: Michael Cunningham, best known for The Hours, thoughtfully illustrates heartbreak in the lives of two brothers in the early 21st century.