Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeously witten - a wonderful piece of work!
Review: The themes of family and home are so intricately conveyed in Michael Cunningham's first work. This is a wonderfully detailed and elegant work, detailing life through the voices of four different people - two young men and two women. A Home at the End of the World tells the subtle stories of Jonathan Glover and Bobby Morrow, who have been friends since the age of thirteen. Jonathan is lonely and introspective and unsure of himself; Bobby is hip, dark and inarticulate. We trace their lives from their childhood home in Cleveland, to their sexualy liberated days in New York, and their involvement with Clare - a freethinking, liberated woman. I love Cunningham's work - The Hours was a masterpiece and this book is equally stunning. What I love about this writer is his ability to make the simplest details of everyday domestic existence mean something. I also love his theme of sexual fluidity between people, which I think he even expanded on to even greater effect in The Hours. Cunningham seems to really understand women, their psyches, their needs and their insecurities. Does this book portray the family of the 21st century? Maybe, although the character of Claire makes a decision which counteracts this idea. The men of the novel are left to fend for themselves, which I think is an interesting outcome. A marvelous story, and I can't wait to see what they do with the movie version, possibly staring Colin Farrell; I wonder what part he will be playing? I can't wait for Cunningham's next piece of work, he is one of America's greats.
Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: I read The Hours and a friend said this book was better, so I gave it a whirl. Last night I saw David Sedaris read and he said he can't review books - all that he can ever think to say is "I like it; it was good." That's how I feel about this book. I liked it. It was good. Isn't that enough?
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: A friend recommended this book to me and I am grateful. This book is beautifully written and the characters are fully realized. The characters' growth, limitations and realizations are wonderful and very real. I would recommend this book, most definitely.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: A friend recommended this book to me, and I am so grateful that he did. The story is beautifully written, the characters fully realized. I found this story very moving - the characters' growth, limitations and realizations are very touching and incredibly real. I'd recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: A Bittersweet Home
Review: I'm a huge fan of Michael Cunningham's work since when I read 'The Hours' for the first time in 1999. Ever since I always meant to read his other novels, but to be honest I was afraid of not being moved as I was by his Pulitzer winning book. Silly me. With all the fuss over the movie 'The Hours' I really felt in the mood for another Cunningham and I chose 'A Home at the End of the World'. I wish I hadn't waited too long. The book is as amazing and well written as 'The Hours'. The characters are vivid and the plot deeply profund. This writer does have the ablity to move us using the power of words. He knows how to make a reader think of his/her life and the world we live in. His characters may look unconventional at first, but think again. They have the same issues everyone has--being homossexual or not. They struggle to keep on living, and they think it is possible to find true love, however they know there might be no such thing. They know life can be hard, but they still believe it is possible to find happiness --who doesn't? Even failing so many times, there is always a new chance, a new begining, and the sense of possibility. It is definitely a sweet novel, but it is set in a bitter real world. Although Cunningham's novel is superb I'm not sure it is for everyone. Some people may feel down with story, others may find it silly. All I can say is if you liked 'The Hours' you're very likely to appreciate 'A Home at the End of the World'. I'm looking forward to his other books.
Rating:
Summary: The Debut of a Virtuoso!
Review: Michael Cunningham seems assured a top position in the Important Writers of this Century. Having won the Pulitzer Prize for THE HOURS and spawning one of the most respected films of the year makes us wonder if this level of literary magnificence can be sustained. And that is a fine reason for returning to his earlier works to see if the seeds of greatness were well planted. The answer: unquestionably! A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD may have taken Cunningham years to write, but what a polished novel those years of patience and care produced! Cunningham is first a writer of astounding gifts: he can spin brief phrases describing a fraction of a moment of light or scent or air or internal feeling that are so beautifully crafted they blink like diamonds on field of story. His vocabulary is eloquent, his ability to paint characters is rich and uniquely his own, and his craft of storytelling is mesmerizing. "A HOME......" deals with the yearning for finding a sense of family and a sense of love and meaning in the world we have inherited and are propagating. His style?: each chapter is named for one of his characters and the story progresses from the different views of these interlocking people. Very simply stated, Cunningham creates Bobby (the lone survivor of a family destroyed by the first born son's death), Jonathan (likewise a survivor of a family who finds a tolerable existence after a stillborn death of a potential sibling), and Clare (an escape artist from a family of means from whom she flees into a world of drugs and sex and loss of connectedness) - and from this melange we study three families and learn just what the term 'family' denotes. Bobby is internally complex and bonds with Jonathan in highschool in what for Jonathan is a homosexual craving and for Bobby is a deparate need for love at any cost. After highschool in Cleveland, Jonathan moves to New York for college and for embracing the lifestyle he cannot find in Cleveland, and pairs with Clare in a sexless coupling that is glued together by mutual need and love. Bobby stays in Cleveland, lost, but bonds with Jonathan's parents (Alice and Ned), becoming a cook and restauranteur. When the effects of Ned's asthma require moving to Arizona, Bobby moves to New York, moving in with Jonathan and Clare, and the final family is born. The intricacies of this menage a trois relationship open the doors for each of the characters to discover their real needs. To tell more would not be fair to the new reader. Suffice it to say that the story Cunningham creates touches nerves and creates chords of identification that make this novel compelling and fascinating to the final page. "...we owe the dead even less than we owe the living, that our only chance of happiness - a small enough chance - lay in welcoming change." Food for thought and certainly a seed of style that makes THE HOURS so magnificent a book. Richly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful but left me with mixed feelings
Review: There is no doubt that this guy is an incredible writer. Some of his sentences are simply poetry. But, the begining of the book is so much better than the end. It tells the struggle of two adolescent boys coming to terms with their sexuality, death and the supression of life with unhappy parents (why are all this writers housewives so miserable?)
Once the boys grow up, they are self involved New Yorkers with very empty lifestyles and hard to care about. The writing is still profound but when I finished this novel I found myself wishing I had known the characters better. The book is very long and goes into a lot of detail so this is a bad sign. Like spending a week with someone on vacation and returning home not knowing anything about them.
I can't criticise Micheal Cunninghams writing because there are truly stunning moments here but I just wish I had understood more about what motivated the characters. Or maybe they were really as shallow as they appeared.
Rating:
Summary: Whatever happened to Jonathan and Bobby?
Review: A lot of people seem to like Michael Cunningham, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I was too bored with Flesh & Blood to finsih it. With Home at the End of the World - I enjoyed parts of the first half, but it dragged in the second half. He is a very good writer of words, and in this has created very interesting characters - but he doesn't seem to know what to do with them. The book seems to have two stories in it; the 2 boys as teenagers, and the 2 boys as adults. The scope of the book is too long, and thus he has not spent enough time actually telling the story. He may know what's going on, but we don't always. He gives short episodes in a persons life, and leaves too many gaps. The characters of Jonathan and Bobby are wonderful, and one wants to follow what happens to these boys, but we don't really get enough. I wanted to read far more on their life and relationship as teenagers and was disappointed when they grew up so quickly. The story of how they first met, and the episode swimming in the cold water were fascinating - but we got so little more. The story of the boys once they were adults was thoroughly depressing. I know books should give us insight into life and not just be escapism, but I found it hard to read about how boring and souless their lives had become. Why had their lives ended up that way?, no real reasons for that were given - which comes back to the fact that not enough is really told to us - we have to fill in too many gaps. Or am I missing something?
Rating:
Summary: Good writing, good story, great characters
Review: "A House At The End Of The World" is a tightly woven story about the lives of three families. We are first introduced to Jonathan and his family, consisting of mom, dad, (Alice, Ned) and the emotional effects of a second stillborn child. On the surface, this family is the perfect picture of early 1960's suburban midwestern normalcy. In the background, however; is a mother who is more committed to the institution of marriage, than the man she's married. She falls helplessly into the role of house maker and mother and ignores the fact that she's married to a man who no longer stimulates her emotionally, sexually, or intellectually. Ned - handsome, wholesome and hardworking - owns a local theatre where he spends most of his waking hours trying to get ahead in life but not living it. Jonathan, the sole surviving son in the family becomes the focus of his mother's love and attention. He becomes her best friend and primary source of fulfillment. Jonathan in turn adores her until adolescence and a new friend (Bobby) arrive on the scene. Bobby's family is quickly introduced. Mom and dad are teachers and live on the cusp of the hippie revolution and the 1950's reserve in which they were raised. The tragic death of their oldest son, whom Bobby idolizes, is the beginning of the family's demise. His mother, grief stricken and depressed, dies from an overdose of sleeping pills. A few years later, the father dies when he falls asleep while smoking and the house catches fire. Bobby and Jonathan meet in junior high and become devoted friends. Jonathan is in love with Bobby and his "otherness" - his unique but sparse clothing, his music and hippie like existence (learned from his older brother). Bobby is in love with the secure family life Jonathan seems to have in light of the tragedies his own family has endured. Upon graduating from high school, the boys lives move down separate paths but remain joined by the relationship Bobby has developed with Jonathan's parents. Bobby and Alice open a restaurant in town while Jonathan heads to New York City for college. While in New York, Jonathan meets and becomes roommates with Clare, a mid-thirties hippie throwback who serves as best friend, mentor and mother. Both share an apartment and try to figure out matters of life, love, and happiness. The third family in the novel consists of Bobby, Clare and Jonathan. Bobby seeks a fresh start in New York after Alice and Ned is forced to move to Arizona due to Ned's emphysema. Bobby, Clare and Jonathan become roommates and eventually share a love that rejects all traditional notions of family. In love and loss, the triad set out to secure a place in the world where they can reconcile their past and build a family that is inextricability bound to one another in life, love and hopes for happiness. Theirs are the most interesting family dynamics in the book, in my opinion. This is a very well written novel. Cunningham has once again demonstrated a superb command of language and storytelling ability. The characters reflect a range of emotions and frailties that adds depth to the novel and helps to maintain interest in the story. This is the second novel I've read by Cunningham and I'm looking forward to catching up on some of his other work. He's certainly earned a place on my preferred author's list. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Contemporary fiction at its best
Review: Michael Cunningham is a writer of such beauty and tenderness that it is difficult to imagine anyone not falling in love with this novel. The characters are so well defined and so incredibly human that their disappearance at the novel's conclusion is truly upsetting. It is warm, funny, human, telling and above all tremendously moving. Bobby's simple nature, so lovingly put forth by Cunningham, makes the character easily the most likeable, but every character in his quartette of narrating voices is vibrant and wonderful. It is the kind of contemporary novel that you want to crawl into and inhabit....and there are not many of those around today. Yes, there is one flaw: Bobby's inner voice is not much different from Jonathan's and very different from his outer voice. However, that does not distract from the overall lyrical poignancy of this novel. This is a story that will probably grab 99 percent of its readers and never let them go. It is highly recommended.
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