A Home at the End of the World: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Fun to read, but without any distinctiveness
Review: After reading "The Hours," I couldn't get my hands on another book by Michael Cunningham fast enough. The description on the back of this book had a sort of Oprah-esq quality to it, but I reserved my doubts and started the book. It is addictively written - for the first half of the book I was engrossed in the lives of the characters and intrigued by everyone Cunningham introduced. Sometime during their time in New York, however, I began to feel that the book had become predictable and usual. I don't think he introduces anything new in this book - the outcome is mildly obvious, and the characters start to loose their distinctiveness. I wound up feeling no concern for what became of them - no one ever seems to change or to seek any change. I lost my sympathy for and interest in these characters at the end; in a way they had become stereotypes from the 1980s (if there is such a thing). Nonetheless, I do think he can be a beautiful writer, and at times it can be a pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: A reason to actually read a book.
Review: The last time I read a book was...I don't remember. I saw this movie and was entranced enough (and felt there was some missing material...maybe a lot) to buy, and then actually read, this book. Twice. I guess I liked it the first time, and I liked it the second time too.

You probably don't have to be gay (or bisexual or whatever) to fully appreciate this book, but I think some familiarily with it would help, and might be the difference between enjoying this or just finding it strange and unrelentingly frustrating.

Michael Cunningham has impressed me with his command of the language and his distinctive ability to describe and bring to life the inner feelings and outer personality of his characters. I cared about them, and I wanted them to find what they were looking for.

The story affirms and celebrates differences and our search for fulfillment and love among the wreckage of human weakness, failings, and general imperfection.

If you've seen the movie and had the urge to more fully examine and know these characters and the story, be warned that the book isn't identical to the movie. However, it's worth the time to read, and it's more satisfying in many ways. I think you will enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Inviting but...
Review: A little stale towards the end. At the start of the book, I could not stop reading. All the characters were real and yet outlandish to the point that readers hung on every word, every articulated piece of speech. However, the book began dragging after the latter half of the middle and the characters lulled a bit. Towards the end, and I won't say what happens, but towards the end when certain unfavorable circumstances arrived, I didn't care as much as I thought I might. But Cunningham does present a book that is a wonderful character review, though needing a bit more umph and speed for the story, A Home at the End of the World should certainly not be passed over.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it.
Review: The book was a little slow-moving, at times, but beautifully written. A story about people growing in life together, written with depth and insight. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it.

Rating:
Summary: STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL MAGNIFICENTLY WRITTEN
Review:
This exquisitely layered story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cunningham is not driven by the standard mechanics of plot and resolution that characterize most conventional novels. Its beauty and power radiate from the throbbing crush of wounded souls who, whether intentionally or not, repeatedly inflict varying degrees of pain upon each other only to find themselves turning repeatedly to one another for emotional shelter from that same pain. Bobby and Jonathan, two of the novel's central characters, can be described respectively as bisexual and gay but they are actually linked more by their twin identities as survivors of childhood tragedies than they are by sexuality. This fact throws into focus important questions raised throughout the book--and maybe in much of Cunningham's writing--examining the composite nature of individual identity, the healing powers of friendship, and the many possibilities inherent in the word "family." The most outstanding hero in A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD may well be the prose itself, finely textured, psychologically fluid, and poetically absorbing. The movie version was a competent enough adaptation but for the real undiluted deal, read this book.
Aberjhani
author of ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
and I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY


Rating:
Summary: Te...di...ous....
Review: I kept waiting for something to happen. The author so carefully draws his characters. He spends lavish amounts of time describing the personalities in the story. Then he switches viewpoints and describes it all again. And again. And again. And so many of his characters complain of being numb, disconnected, and unfulfilled. I must say he conveys this very well and repeatedly. It left me feeling much the same.

This book reads much like two players sitting down to an chess match with an expensive set. The board is set. The pieces are exquisite. Then the players sit around and stare at the board without touching the pieces for several days. Beautifully rendered -- but nothing's going on. Wake me when it's over.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: There is a particular author I am found of who believes a good story leaves something with you after you've turned the last page. Be it a feeling, a meaning, or something learned. This is a beautiful story of friendship, love and family. I like the character study-style writing Mr. Cunningham uses in his work. It helps us to fully understand and come to know his characters. It is interesting because, as in real life, people who experience things together often times have completely different persepectives and points of view.
Here we have Jonathan who is loved yet lonely all the same as he finds the courage to leave his best friend, Bobby, to move to New York for college and life. Bobby is a tragic figure, he seems lost yet he is not lonely even after losing everyone imaginable in his life. After a failed attempt at a buisness venture, he moves to New York to join Jonathan and his roommate, Clare. We walk through life with them, right by their side as the mysteries unfold, as hope and loss and tragedy lift these three spirits up and down as if floating upon the ocean.
To pass up this great read would be a shame. If you need to be touched, you will find that here in Jonathan's pain and struggle, in Bobby's gentle, almost child like ways, and with Clare's harsh honesty and truths. Most of all, in the love they all share for each other. There is plenty to wallow in.

Rating:
Summary: What binds us is stronger than sex.It is stronger than love
Review: A modern day Platonic Symposium put into practice. See the top paragraph of p. 268 of the paperback ed. "Each of us is the other born into different flesh... only we can be ourselves and one another at the same time" We are halves of our original wholes. Bobby finally discoveres this toward the beginning of pt.3 he needs Jonathan to complete his "other half" and Jonathan knows this also but does not give words to it. Michael Cunningham's greatest novel destined to live on as a classic novel forever!!!. If only we could all be so fortunate as to find our "other half."

Rating:
Summary: Empathy, insight and depth not found in the movie...
Review: If you've seen the movie, please, please, please read the book! If you have not seen the film, read the book instead. Cunningham's charactars are real and interesting, and even when they disappoint you, you want to know them better. Though this book examines the meaning of family and explores alternatives, it neither paints an idealized portrait of "traditional" heterosexual families nor presents experimental forms as the easy way out. The gay man/bisexual man/straight woman/child composition of family, though it sounds far-fetched, is exactly fitting for these characters. Still, it does not fully satisfy them. And though we're surprised and disappointed at some of the choices made by the characters, they make perfect sense as we consider the inner lives of the individuals making them. I think the omission of Erich's character from the movie took away from the power of the relationship between Bobby and Jonathan. In the book, their life together in the house caring for Jonathan's sick ex-lover provided some of the most emotionally resonant moments in the whole novel. Just as they had in their adolescence, they ended up only with each other, and somehow in this home at the end of the world, it was almost, though not quite, enough. Some of Cunningham's emotional insight is so empathic that you'll find yourself aching from the truth of it. Don't miss this read.


Rating:
Summary: Well-written but meandering
Review: Having read The Hours (and finding it excruciatingly boring) years ago, I approached this book with much apprehension, especially upon instantly being reminded of Cunningham's device of telling each chapter from a different character's perspective. While it was annoying in The Hours, it really added depth to this novel. My only beef with it being that often times an event would occur and be told from a perspective that wasn't as potentially interesting as another's might have been.

The plot leaves something to be desired. Each of the characters definitely have an arch, but I don't feel that the action in many cases was interesting enough to work. It seemed as if the circumstances were forced in order to lead to some sort of emotional or psychological revelation. On the whole, I found the entire thing to be unbelievable, though I did wholly believe the characters as well-rounded individuals (go figure!).

In terms of action, I also have to say that Cunningham is a little too showy and smart for his own good. The language of this text is occasionally too flowery and descriptive for its own good. At several times I felt that the action sputtered or completely stalled while the writer turned a phrase or showed exactly how "good" a writer he really is.

The treatment of AIDS in this book is certainly worthy of note. All I can say is thankfully we are more informed about the disease now than apparently was the case at the time that this novel was written.

All of that being said, I would still have to recommend this book. Obviously the writing is above average and certainly provoked a response out of me. Be warned, though, there is little happiness or hope to be found here.