A Home at the End of the World

"You don't necessarily meet a lot of people in this world."

This is the first of Michael Cunningham's books I've read, but I will be reading all of them. He just flat gets it. By the time I was halfway through, I more or less disliked two of the three main characters, but I wasn't tired of reading about them. I wanted to figure them out. I wanted to like them and if I didn't, I wanted to understand why.

This is one of those books that you read a sentence or a paragraph or a scene and it hits you deep down, sometimes in the places where you're most insecure. (If you're someone who underlines quotations, get new pencils. Get a *box* of pencils.) There were times when I was sad or upset about something and would read another book instead show more because I didn't want to feel everything that this one brought up.

I'm making this book sound like a big downer. It isn't. It's exhilarating, like all the best books, because it tells you what you know is true and then makes you look at it all again. show less

i border very close to having absolutely loved this book. the writing is exquisite, and the way he shows this idea of waiting to live your life - it just felt so brutally honest and raw. how what feel like small tragedies in the moment - things not said, the stuff you think you'll one day do or say - end up shaping a life and can even be the main tragedy in it. and i loved, really loved, the way bobby frames things and gives us insight into the rest of the book at the very end. a beautiful wrap-up.

of the 3 main characters, i really only liked one of them, but only really disliked one of them as well. i guess it's more that i couldn't really relate at all to one of them, the woman, and just felt more connected to the two men, especially show more bobby. still, that mattered not a bit to how much i enjoyed this book.

had it not been for the holidays, i would never have taken so long to have read it. i'm too slow a reader to be able to read a book like this in one sitting, but i would really have loved to have been able to. i never wanted to put it down.

between a mother and her adolescent son:
"'Good night,' he said.
'Good night. Sleep well.'
Still I lingered. I could not leave off looking at him, even if he resented me for it. If I'd had the courage I'd have said to him, 'Don't do it. Please don't start hating me. You can have the world without shutting me out of your life.'
I walked quietly from the room, as full of him as I had been when I was pregnant."

"...at a theater where a mouse ran across our feet, quick and feathery as a bad impulse." show less

A Home at the End of the World is Cunningham’s first novel. The characters are an interesting mix of oddballs and misfits who find solace in the eccentric life they build together. The book has a rotating narrative, moving mainly between Bobby, Jonathan and Claire. The two boys meet when they are young and form a friendship that proves pivotal in both of their lives.

Bobby’s world is filled with tragedies and he becomes attached to Jonathan’s family. As adults, the two boys reconnect in New York City where Jonathan lives with Claire, a bohemian older woman. Jonathan is gay, but the two have discussed raising a child together.

My favorite character in the story is Alice, Jonathan’s mother. In a couple small sections she tells the show more story from her point-of-view and I loved her voice. She a southern woman, stranded in a Midwestern suburb, trapped in the role of a homemaker. She’s watching her life pass her by, but isn’t sure how to go about changing it.

There’s no denying Cunningham’s skill as a writer. The sentences are rich and beautiful; his descriptions are lush without becoming flowery. My issue is with the characters and plot. We watch them grow, but not really change. They live a strange life that allows them to float through the years, never really maturing. I couldn’t connect with any of them and felt like they were all a bit too naïve or clueless to make it far in the real world.

I read The Hours when I was in college and absolutely loved it. Since then I haven’t been able to find another Cunningham book that I really enjoy. I couldn’t stand Specimen Days, and Land’s End was nothing special. After reading this one, I think I’m going to have to give up and assume that The Hours was a one-off for me and I’m just not a fan of the rest of his work. Skip this one and read The Hours, it’s wonderful.

“We become the stories we tell about ourselves.” show less

Mi è piaciuto molto questo romanzo. È stata una bella scoperta quella della scrittura di Cunningham, una penna a mio avviso molto raffinata che si cimenta con un racconto a quattro voci della storia di Jonathan e Benny, amici di infanzia prima e compagni di vita poi. L'autore affronta temi difficili (l'amore, l'amicizia, la famiglia, l'omosessualità, la malattia) con grande delicatezza, ricamando le parole intorno ai fatti, sempre convincente senza risultare banale, prolisso o indigesto. I personaggi, benché "strani", sono tutti assolutamente credibili e perfettamente calati nel ruolo che lo scrittore attribuisce loro. Fanno scelte che, per quanto strane od opinabili, risultano realistiche proprio per la caratterizzazione precisa show more dei personaggi stessi. Nella seconda metà del libro si avverte forse un po' di stanchezza (sporadici momenti di noia e una certa omogeneizzazione delle quattro voci narranti), che però nulla toglie alla straordinarietà di questo romanzo. show less

A stunning literary achievement, A Home At the End of the World explores the universal need for witnessing by challenging conventional ideas of family. Cunningham examines three lives brought together by love in all its incongruent and mysterious forms. He masterfully composes a literary symphony of discordant moments balanced with the rich sonority of exquisite joy.

The characters are vivid and step outside unilateral definition as they strive to find meaning within a world that is largely dependent on orthodoxy. Through sex, fashion, music, and travel, Bobby, Jonathan and Clare take a journey, sometimes together and sometimes apart, to finally be at home in their own hearts.

Like The Hours, this has some incredibly beautiful, amazingly poignant, and overwhelming sad bits. At first I wondered if I would get the various narrators' voices muddled (especially Bobby and Jonathan), but they quickly developed as separate entities in my reader's mind and I did not find myself wanting one perspective over another (even when Alice, Jonathan's mother, and Clare, joined the group) as often happens when a novel is told from more than one perspective. The insights on marriage, relationships, and how we create meaning in our lives are provocative and urge discussion, but more than anything I just want to know more about these characters; I don't want to leave them behind just because the story is over.

Many reviews of this brilliant book perplex me. Some have commented that the action was slow or characters were introduced that didn't contribute enough to the overall plot, as if this were supposed to be a fast-paced thriller starring Tom Cruise (further evidence to me that even some readers have fallen prey to a short attention span paradigm). Others comment that it was poor because Jonathan wasn't the ideal of what a gay man should aspire to be in terms of strength of character. Since when has strenght of character been a yardstick for great literature?

Michael Cunningham delivered in terms of breathtaking prose and the creation of characters that were alive--not just stereotypes. At the same time, he captured archetypal show more characteristics in Bobby, Jonathan, and Clare that mirror the faults and strengths of people in our own lives. Fear of abandonment. Fear of death and aging. Fear of responsibility. Hope for a better future.

If you are in the mood for fluff (as we all are sometimes) save this for later. If not, don't miss it. show less