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Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
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Specimen Days (original 2005; edition 2005)

by Michael Cunningham

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1,975468,259 (3.45)59
Fiction. Literature. HTML:

A highly anticipated, bold new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hoursâ??three linked visionary narratives set in the ever-mysterious, turbulent city of New York
In each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, "It avails not, neither distance nor place...I am with you, and know how it is."
SPECIMEN DAYS is a genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in our greatest cityâ??a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today
… (more)

Member:ILouro
Title:Specimen Days
Authors:Michael Cunningham
Info:Fourth Estate (2005), Hardcover
Collections:Read & on Goodreads, Your library, Wishlist, Currently reading, Read but unowned
Rating:***
Tags:fiction, Goodreads

Work Information

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham (2005)

  1. 21
    Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (limerts)
    limerts: Very similar structure, and both outstanding.
  2. 10
    Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (Myrael)
  3. 11
    The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson (GoST)
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» See also 59 mentions

English (42)  Finnish (3)  German (1)  All languages (46)
Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
Okay, Cunningham can write, certainly: he has stylistic skills, knows how to portray believable characters and can compose interesting stories with them, often with literary references (cf. The Hours and Virginia Woolf). He also shows this in this book, which consists of three parts. The first has a quite explicit Dickensian slant, the second is in line with the best psychological thrillers, and the third with the most fascinating material from the dystopian science fiction world. Cunningham also makes some connections between the three stories, although they take place in three time periods: silly links such as a bowl that suddenly appears in each of the stories (it is not clear to me why), intriguing ones such as names of characters that return (Simon, Luke, Catherine), and the like. At the beginning of the book, Cunningham included a quote from Walt Whitman, the personification of exuberant American individualism, which hints that people always struggle with the same feelings regardless of new times. Is this the unifying theme? By the way, Whitman constantly returns in the stories, almost always in the form of quotes, turning him into a gimmick. Did Cunningham want to illustrate with this book that time and place don't matter in human lifes, and that everyone (even a ‘humanised robot’) actually just wants the same thing: a little security and happiness? At the risk of sounding harsh: isn’t that a bit cheesy? I don't know, this novel didn't convince me. ( )
  bookomaniac | Nov 10, 2023 |
Not bad but a little strange. I was expecting more about Walt Whitman, but he is quoted a lot. ( )
  kslade | Dec 8, 2022 |
I think reading this book in spurts was a disservice. All three "stories" within the novel are interconnected, but it is hard to evaluate the novel as a whole because the three sections seem almost more like individual novellas. All three stories have three main characters (who share names, but shift their roles as protagonists/antagonists and their characterizations: Simon, Catherine/Cat/Catareen, Lucas/Luke) and Walt Whitman's poetry (and occasionally the poet himself) features in all three stories.

Of the three, "In the Machine" resonated the most, but I suspect that was because it was the first and I had no concept of the book as a whole. Cunningham vividly evokes the New York sidewalks and factories of yesteryear, with meaningful experiences of the underserved and outcast woven into a pseudo-ghost story.

The middle section, "The Children's Crusade," shifts to a more recent present, with a gritty protagonist whose choices, however, are less convincing than those of "In the Machine". The final offering, "Like Beauty," is an indulgent shift into sci-fi dystopia land, which ends up being a good read with an edge, but left me wanting the backstory that might have been included if it had been an entire novel.

Some have criticized the work as being too similar to Cunningham's The Hours in its use of Virginia Woolf. I can't comment on that, but I will say that the use of Whitman didn't always pack the same level of punch across the three stories. I found the Whitman quotes most compelling and interesting in the "The Children's Crusade" where as they seemed more of an annoyance in the other two.

It probably deserves a more concentrated re-read from me, because I'm sure I missed interconnections and allegories. On the other hand, I enjoyed reading each section as a self-contained story, even if Cunningham's genre experimentation was not consistently convincing ( )
  rebcamuse | May 24, 2022 |
Amazing ( )
  jaydenmccomiskie | Sep 27, 2021 |
A really interesting trio of stories that keeps bringing a trio of characters together, in the past, present, and future. ( )
  stephkaye | Dec 14, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (8 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Cunningham, Michaelprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Abelsen, PeterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Drews, KristiinaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Fear not O Muse! truly new ways and days receive, surround you,
I candidly confess a queer, queer race, of novel fashion,
And yet the same old human race, the same within, without,
Faces and hearts the same, feelings the same, yearnings the same,
The same old love, beauty and use the same. -- Walt Whitman
Dedication
This novel is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Dorothy
First words
Walt said that the dead turned into grass, but there was no grass where they'd buried Simon.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Fiction. Literature. HTML:

A highly anticipated, bold new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hoursâ??three linked visionary narratives set in the ever-mysterious, turbulent city of New York
In each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band which is detonating bombs seemingly at random around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, "It avails not, neither distance nor place...I am with you, and know how it is."
SPECIMEN DAYS is a genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in our greatest cityâ??a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today

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Book description
The novel is divided into what are essentially three discrete short stories, unified by common threads such as character names and types, story location (New York City), story themes (such as shared humanity), and the presence of Walt Whitman (whether through actual physical presence, quotation of his works via narrator or character, or the spirit of his ideas expressed through narrator or character).
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