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Title: A Home at the End of the World
Author: Michael Cunningham
Narrator: Colin Farrell, Dallas Roberts, Jennifer Van Dyke
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
Language: English
Release date: 11-30-15
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
It was the start of my second new life, in a city that had a spin of its own - a wilder orbit inside the earth's calm blue-green whirl. New York wasn't open to the hopelessness and lost purpose that drifted around lesser places....
Meet Bobby, Jonathan and Clare. Three friends, three lovers, three ordinary people trying to make a place for themselves in the harsh and uncompromising world of the '70s and '80s. And as our threesome form a new kind of relationship, a new approach to family and love, questioning so much about the world around them, so they hope to create a space, a home, in which to live.
Michael Cunningham is the author of the novels Flesh and Blood, The Hours, Specimen Days and By Nightfall.
Critic Reviews:
"A writer of great gifts. Cunningham's voice reaches that lyrical beauty in which even the grimmest events suggest their potential for grace." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Intensely, almost painfully intimate. A superb and major novel." (David Leavitt)
"As well as being fluent and attractive, this intimate saga of our times is immensely wise." (Mail on Sunday)
"Cunningham writes with power and delicacy of his three characters. Yet each one retains the mystery that in people is called soul, and in fiction is called art." (The Los Angeles Times)
"Extremely intelligent, moving and accomplished. Cunningham has mastered the art of evoking the richness of domestic lives." (Sunday Times)
Members Reviews:
Good, now dated, and flawed ending
Cunningham is an excellent writer but however, but rarely, over does it. Also by now the book is almost historical in it's content, the 60's, 70'2 scene, Aids, Woodstock, gay's coming into their own, and a kind of communal living here. But nevertheless a very good read. The greatest flaw of the book and the biggest downer is the terribly weak and unimaginative ending. He leaves you hanging in limbo without resolution of many issues. If it was me I would have written a flashback chapter after the ending and wrap up the people's lives. Leaving it as he did gnaws at me for completion.
Does the end of the world come before a home is located?
Michael Cunningham I read without referring to reviews - no matter what he writes. This started out as a sure-fire, five-star selection. Cunningham's writing style is superb. Such insight! Such definitive prose! But I got bogged down a bit during the middle. Got tired of Clare's actions and Jonathan's inability to get his life going. Well, I guess I shouldn't blame the author for that. Undoubtedly that's how he wanted it to happen. So, I'll give Clare and Jonathan about three stars, and make that up with Bobby and Alice, both of whom, in their own ways, seem to be survivors.
What about plot and character? The novel definitely has a viable plot, even though it meanders somewhat aimlessly over several decades and multiple destinations. The ending seems true to the plot, i.e., you don't really know where the characters are going, which sums up the book nicely. Meanwhile, the individual character development is fine. The reader gets to know what the main characters are doing, although not necessarily why or what their activities and choices add up to. Once again, that's no doubt what the author wants to convey.
