By Nightfall
By Michael Cunningham
- Release Date: 2010-09-28
- Genre: Literary Fiction
Description
Peter and Rebecca Harris: mid-forties denizens of Manhattan's SoHo, nearing the apogee of committed careers in the arts—he a dealer, she an editor. With a spacious loft, a college-age daughter in Boston, and lively friends, they are admirable, enviable contemporary urbanites with every reason, it seems, to be happy. Then Rebecca's much younger look-alike brother, Ethan (known in thefamily as Mizzy, "the mistake"), shows up for a visit. A beautiful, beguiling twenty-three-year-old with a history of drug problems, Mizzy is wayward, at loose ends, looking for direction. And in his presence, Peter finds himself questioning his artists, their work, his career—the entire world he has so carefully constructed.
Like his legendary, Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Hours, Michael Cunningham's masterly new novel is a heartbreaking look at the way we live now. Full of shocks and aftershocks, it makes us think and feel deeply about the uses and meaning of beauty and the place of love in our lives.
Reviews
By Nightfall
5By NickD914NYHis novels never end happily, but it never stops me from reading them. I have read no truer depictions of the strengths and frailties of the human condition. ....So who cares if for the rest of the day, once the book is finished, I may want to run the bath water and slit my wrists. Tomorrow I will be better from having read a Cunningham novel.This is literature
5By in2insightWith his gift for words, for painting a story of many layers, The author has given us, the readers, a treasure of true beauty.By nightfall
2By LoveandsqualorContrived, Undeveloped and generally unlikeableNice little book
5By Long BeacherBeautifully felt and written.