Day, by Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham’s latest gem, Day , is a beautifully crafted peek into one family’s complex relationships with each other, and the complicated inner lives of its individual members. It is told in three days: April 5, 2019, April 5, 2020, and April 5, 2021. The fulcrum of this family is Robbie, who is, at the start of this novel, living in an upstairs annex of the apartment of his sister and her family. Sister Isabel and Robbie have always had an unusually close relationship. In addition, Robbie has also grown close to Dan, Isabel’s husband and their two children, Nathan and Violet. As much as Robbie enjoys living with his sister’s family, and they enjoy him, Isabel and Dan’s children are getting too old to share a room, and they are becoming cramped. Robbie needs to give them back their space. While Robbie is going about doing his work as a teacher, looking for an apartment, and going through his things, we quickly learn his backstory, and the fact that he and...