Specimen Days - Book 13

Michael Cunningham is such a great writer that you just have to excuse his rather bleak take on the world. Like other books that I have read by him ( The Hours, A Home at the End of the World) this book is in the end the story of human endurance in the face of high odds and periods of incredible lonliness and alienation. It is composed of three novellas, all set in New York, all integrating the poetry of Walt Whitman in one way or another. The first is a story of Irish immigrants set at the dawn of the industrial revolution, the second is a kind of post 9/11 police procedural mystery that seems to signal the beginning of the demise of capitalism, and the third is a post-apocalyptic story cast in the mid 21 century after capitalism has led to the destruction of pretty much everything. Each story features recurring characters types. Sounds hokey, but he manages to pull it off very well. I had read the first story months ago and then put it down as I was not in the mood for grim destruction. But when I picked it back up recently I found I could not put it down. Cunningham is really an extraordinary writer. Great book!