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 Isabel share a sort of imaginary friend named Wolfe (I admire the use of that name). Robbie has created an instagram account for Wolfe,  and he and Isabel discuss what Wolfe is doing from time to time. 

Robbie, not the imaginary Wolfe, is a strong support for his unhappy sister, happily helping out with her children, and it is hard to imagine that any of them will be nearly as content when brother, in-law, and uncle is gone. This is a group of people who prop each other up.

During the first day, April 5, 2019,  we see how these individual lives dwell together.  On the first anniversary of that date, Robbie has set out for a new life, and then the pandemic happens, so Robbie is separated from family, but the rest are very together. Lastly, in April of 2021, we spend the day with a family in which each member is attempting to find a path forward after all the changes and losses that have occurred in a relatively short period of time.

I am fascinated with how Cunningham tells us so much about his characters in a way that seems both beautiful and detailed, yet occupies so few pages. I also admire that story  was told in three parts, emphasizing the heartbreaking passage of this time for this family. 

Many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for providing me the chance to read this remarkable novel.