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Samaa sukua
Constantine Stassos, köyhän viljelijäperheen poika, muuttaa Kreikasta Yhdysvaltoihin ja rakastuu amerikanitalialaiseen Mary Cuccioon. Kun sota on päättynyt, he perustavat perheen. Mary hoitaa lapsia kotona ja Constantine paiskii pitkää päivää rakennuksella.
Eräänä kosteana, höyryävän kuumana päivänä Constantine pistäytyy oluella läheisessä kapakassa. Viereisellä tuolilla istuu hänen maanmiehensä Kazanzakis, ammatiltaan urakoitsija. Tämä huomaa pian saaneensa oivallisen yhtiökumppanin. Constantine nimittäin tietää, miten rakentaa halvalla, missä fuskata kenenkään uomaamatta ja silti saada talot näyttämään äveriäiltä. Muutamassa vuodessa Constantine luo suunnattoman omaisuuden ja muuttaa perheineen Long Islandiin.
Samaa sukua on upea tarina amerikkalaisesta unelmasta. Tämä palkittu romaani kertoo siirtolaisperheen satavuotisesta taipaleesta kohti anteeksiantoa ja ymmärrystä. Michael Cunningham hurmaa lukijansa yksityiskohtien rikkaudella ja herkästi piirretyillä henkilöhahmoilla.
Samaa sukua on myös eloisa ja hirtehinen kuvaus hippisukupolvesta, miehistä ja naisista, jotka harrastivat seksiä milloin mielivät, uivat alasti ja väittivät, että heille riitti suunnitelmaksi metsän tuoksu - ja varjot veen.
Eräänä kosteana, höyryävän kuumana päivänä Constantine pistäytyy oluella läheisessä kapakassa. Viereisellä tuolilla istuu hänen maanmiehensä Kazanzakis, ammatiltaan urakoitsija. Tämä huomaa pian saaneensa oivallisen yhtiökumppanin. Constantine nimittäin tietää, miten rakentaa halvalla, missä fuskata kenenkään uomaamatta ja silti saada talot näyttämään äveriäiltä. Muutamassa vuodessa Constantine luo suunnattoman omaisuuden ja muuttaa perheineen Long Islandiin.
Samaa sukua on upea tarina amerikkalaisesta unelmasta. Tämä palkittu romaani kertoo siirtolaisperheen satavuotisesta taipaleesta kohti anteeksiantoa ja ymmärrystä. Michael Cunningham hurmaa lukijansa yksityiskohtien rikkaudella ja herkästi piirretyillä henkilöhahmoilla.
Samaa sukua on myös eloisa ja hirtehinen kuvaus hippisukupolvesta, miehistä ja naisista, jotka harrastivat seksiä milloin mielivät, uivat alasti ja väittivät, että heille riitti suunnitelmaksi metsän tuoksu - ja varjot veen.
576 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
118 people are currently reading
6256 people want to read
About the author
Michael Cunningham
83 books4,274 followersMichael Cunningham is the author of the novels A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, The Hours (winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award & Pulitzer Prize), Specimen Days, and By Nightfall, as well as the non-fiction book, Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown. His new novel, The Snow Queen, will be published in May of 2014. He lives in New York, and teaches at Yale University.
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November 28, 2025
STELLA MALATA
Titolo molto adatto a questo bel romanzo che parla davvero di carne e sangue e di carne e sangue ha il gusto.
Anche se poi probabilmente il sapore che rimane nell’anima è quello della cenere: la cenere in cui sia carne che sangue, fragili e caduchi, si trasformano.
Curioso che io l’abbia apprezzato tanto e non abbia mai letto null’altro di Cunningham, neppure il suo premiato Le ore.
È bella la storia, anche se non particolarmente originale, trattandosi della storia di una famiglia di immigrati greci in USA: il padre capostipite, Constantine, che arriva nel continente nuovo quando ha dodici anni, insegue il sogno americano, si costruisce una nuova vita, e nuove possibilità, si sposa con una donna figlia di italiani, mettono su famiglia, tre figli. Cento anni della loro vita, dal 1935 al 2035 (questo sì, aspetto che esce dalla norma).
Un padre padre padrone, burbero e violento, determinato e accaparratore, che è la quintessenza del sogno americano nel suo raggiungimento del benessere economico e sociale partendo da una posizione di povero e ignorante.
A risentirne sarà l’equilibrio domestico: la moglie Mary, desperate housewife degli anni Cinquanta, lo lascia e divorzia. E lo stesso Constantine finisce col considerare anche la prole più un bene di possesso che figli da amare. Con l’eccezione di Susan, con la quale però si spingerà ben oltre, troppo in là, nell’infido dolente territorio dell’incesto.
Susan si sposerà presto, un matrimonio irreprensibile tutto di facciata, le nasce Ben destinato a fine precoce.
Al punto che l’unico maschio, Billy, è omosessuale, avrà sempre un rapporto conflittuale col padre, e per affrancarsi dall’eredità familiare si cambierà il nome in Will. Si lega a un uomo più grande di lui e si accontenta di un modesto impiego rinunciando, quasi nascondendo, la prestigiosa laurea a Harvard.
E anche la figlia minore, Zoe, non si separa dal nido in modo indolore: la aspetta un futuro di alcol, sesso, droghe e bar notturni. Fino all’incontro con Cassandra, transessuale: un amore che porterà entrambe a contrarre l’AIDS. Nel frattempo è diventata madre di Jamal, partorito dall’incontro con un afroamericano.
Dal punto di vista di Constantine Stassos un rosario di sciagure. È come se lui fosse una forza centrifuga nel suo inseguimento di rivincita e riscossa attraverso successo e denaro che finisce con lo scagliare il più lontano da sé il resto del nucleo familiare.
Gli Stassos sono l’emblema del paese America, un esempio paradigmatico pulsante e sofferente, un seme che viene da altrove, piantato sul suo a stelle e strisce, seme duro e coriaceo che riesce ad attecchire, crescere, irrobustirsi, riprodursi, debordare, correre, fuggire, in cerca di un’identità, della propria felicità sotto qualsiasi multiforme aspetto si presenti.
Una saga di più generazioni che tra-scorrono e passano fino all’arrivo dell’anno 2035.
E che Cunningham racconta con ritmo e lingua ipnotica facendoci empatizzare con tutti i suoi personaggi, anche i più ostici come il capostipite, che sa trasmetterci vivi e vividi, palpitanti. E così succede che senza accorgersene più mi avvicinavo alla fine e più centellinavo rallentando il ritmo della lettura.
Tutte le immagini sono tratte dal film “Una casa alla fine del mondo” di Michael Mayer, basato sull’omonimo romanzo di Cunningham (2004).
Titolo molto adatto a questo bel romanzo che parla davvero di carne e sangue e di carne e sangue ha il gusto.
Anche se poi probabilmente il sapore che rimane nell’anima è quello della cenere: la cenere in cui sia carne che sangue, fragili e caduchi, si trasformano.
Curioso che io l’abbia apprezzato tanto e non abbia mai letto null’altro di Cunningham, neppure il suo premiato Le ore.
È bella la storia, anche se non particolarmente originale, trattandosi della storia di una famiglia di immigrati greci in USA: il padre capostipite, Constantine, che arriva nel continente nuovo quando ha dodici anni, insegue il sogno americano, si costruisce una nuova vita, e nuove possibilità, si sposa con una donna figlia di italiani, mettono su famiglia, tre figli. Cento anni della loro vita, dal 1935 al 2035 (questo sì, aspetto che esce dalla norma).
Un padre padre padrone, burbero e violento, determinato e accaparratore, che è la quintessenza del sogno americano nel suo raggiungimento del benessere economico e sociale partendo da una posizione di povero e ignorante.
A risentirne sarà l’equilibrio domestico: la moglie Mary, desperate housewife degli anni Cinquanta, lo lascia e divorzia. E lo stesso Constantine finisce col considerare anche la prole più un bene di possesso che figli da amare. Con l’eccezione di Susan, con la quale però si spingerà ben oltre, troppo in là, nell’infido dolente territorio dell’incesto.
Susan si sposerà presto, un matrimonio irreprensibile tutto di facciata, le nasce Ben destinato a fine precoce.
Al punto che l’unico maschio, Billy, è omosessuale, avrà sempre un rapporto conflittuale col padre, e per affrancarsi dall’eredità familiare si cambierà il nome in Will. Si lega a un uomo più grande di lui e si accontenta di un modesto impiego rinunciando, quasi nascondendo, la prestigiosa laurea a Harvard.
E anche la figlia minore, Zoe, non si separa dal nido in modo indolore: la aspetta un futuro di alcol, sesso, droghe e bar notturni. Fino all’incontro con Cassandra, transessuale: un amore che porterà entrambe a contrarre l’AIDS. Nel frattempo è diventata madre di Jamal, partorito dall’incontro con un afroamericano.
Dal punto di vista di Constantine Stassos un rosario di sciagure. È come se lui fosse una forza centrifuga nel suo inseguimento di rivincita e riscossa attraverso successo e denaro che finisce con lo scagliare il più lontano da sé il resto del nucleo familiare.
Gli Stassos sono l’emblema del paese America, un esempio paradigmatico pulsante e sofferente, un seme che viene da altrove, piantato sul suo a stelle e strisce, seme duro e coriaceo che riesce ad attecchire, crescere, irrobustirsi, riprodursi, debordare, correre, fuggire, in cerca di un’identità, della propria felicità sotto qualsiasi multiforme aspetto si presenti.
Una saga di più generazioni che tra-scorrono e passano fino all’arrivo dell’anno 2035.
E che Cunningham racconta con ritmo e lingua ipnotica facendoci empatizzare con tutti i suoi personaggi, anche i più ostici come il capostipite, che sa trasmetterci vivi e vividi, palpitanti. E così succede che senza accorgersene più mi avvicinavo alla fine e più centellinavo rallentando il ritmo della lettura.
Tutte le immagini sono tratte dal film “Una casa alla fine del mondo” di Michael Mayer, basato sull’omonimo romanzo di Cunningham (2004).
November 26, 2021
“The world was made of mistakes, a thorny tangle, and no amount of cord, however fastidiously tied, could bind them all down.”
Michael Cunningham knows that the world is a big, messy place, full of chaos and danger. He knows that people are far from perfect, making huge blunders along the way. But he also loves people, despite all our faults. I just know he does. It comes across so beautifully in his writing; I often have to stop and close the book and catch my breath for a few moments after reading certain passages. I began my Cunningham journey at perhaps an unusual point compared to most readers when I picked up his non-fiction book titled Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown. That piece left me so charmed I knew I’d have to trek beyond the tip of Cape Cod and into some of his other worlds. Grabbing next what was considered his masterpiece, The Hours, I had a niggling fear that I went in the wrong direction and would be disappointed in everything else thereafter. I was so wrong. Cunningham is more than just The Hours. So much more, friends!
He wanted to be happy in a solid, sustained way, hour to hour, not in turbulent little fits that gripped him at odd moments, usually when he was alone.
This is a saga of a family, the Stassos, beginning with the patriarch, Constantine, and then following the lives of his wife, Mary, and their three children, Susan, Billy (Will) and Zoe. We accompany them into adulthood, watch their growth (or lack thereof, in some cases), observe their dissatisfactions, groan at their errors, and weep at their misfortunes. There are several minor characters that Cunningham handles with equal depth, despite their more limited time in the spotlight. The family is full of imperfections. But Cunningham always makes us understand why his characters behave as they do. I was never left scratching my head trying to figure out why the hell they did this or that. Even while cursing certain actions, I nodded with an undoubting comprehension. It’s all here, the stuff of life: birth, death, marriage, infidelity, and sexual identity. Finding friendship and love in unexpected places. Our lives can be enriched by opening our hearts, embracing differences, setting aside preconceived expectations.
“… he wanted something that lay beyond simple vanity and the small, sour satisfactions it offered… Something was marrying him; something was lashing itself to his flesh.”
There’s one scene partway through this that caused me to set the book aside for a few minutes and take a deep breath. It was nothing remarkable on the surface. My mother, who was with me right then, said, “Uh oh. Someone must have died.” No, it wasn’t like that at all. For one moment, I was there in a room with the distraught mother, Mary, and a drag queen named Cassandra. In that instant, I WAS Mary and Cassandra both. I couldn’t put into words how I felt, other than to say the old cliché that reading truly can make you walk in someone else’s shoes. It is so hard to explain that moment of epiphany – one of the reasons why we in fact spend our precious time with our noses in books.
“It’s hard to live. It’s hard to keep walking around and change into new outfits all the time and not just collapse.”
I don’t know how Michael Cunningham does it. I really don’t. His writing has not yet failed to dazzle and leave me with a bundle of emotions that seep over into my everyday life. But someday, when I make that trip to Provincetown again, I’m going to roam the streets looking for his cottage. And I’m going to knock on his door and ask him. I have a feeling that he won’t turn me away. I don’t think he’s that kind of a guy.
“The light that fell from the limpid sky seemed almost visibly to be thawing the earth, and it was possible to imagine, on a day like this, that a huge rolling kindness, soft and unremarkable, more closely resembling human sentimentality than the more scourging benevolence of God, did in fact prevail in the world.”
Michael Cunningham knows that the world is a big, messy place, full of chaos and danger. He knows that people are far from perfect, making huge blunders along the way. But he also loves people, despite all our faults. I just know he does. It comes across so beautifully in his writing; I often have to stop and close the book and catch my breath for a few moments after reading certain passages. I began my Cunningham journey at perhaps an unusual point compared to most readers when I picked up his non-fiction book titled Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown. That piece left me so charmed I knew I’d have to trek beyond the tip of Cape Cod and into some of his other worlds. Grabbing next what was considered his masterpiece, The Hours, I had a niggling fear that I went in the wrong direction and would be disappointed in everything else thereafter. I was so wrong. Cunningham is more than just The Hours. So much more, friends!
He wanted to be happy in a solid, sustained way, hour to hour, not in turbulent little fits that gripped him at odd moments, usually when he was alone.
This is a saga of a family, the Stassos, beginning with the patriarch, Constantine, and then following the lives of his wife, Mary, and their three children, Susan, Billy (Will) and Zoe. We accompany them into adulthood, watch their growth (or lack thereof, in some cases), observe their dissatisfactions, groan at their errors, and weep at their misfortunes. There are several minor characters that Cunningham handles with equal depth, despite their more limited time in the spotlight. The family is full of imperfections. But Cunningham always makes us understand why his characters behave as they do. I was never left scratching my head trying to figure out why the hell they did this or that. Even while cursing certain actions, I nodded with an undoubting comprehension. It’s all here, the stuff of life: birth, death, marriage, infidelity, and sexual identity. Finding friendship and love in unexpected places. Our lives can be enriched by opening our hearts, embracing differences, setting aside preconceived expectations.
“… he wanted something that lay beyond simple vanity and the small, sour satisfactions it offered… Something was marrying him; something was lashing itself to his flesh.”
There’s one scene partway through this that caused me to set the book aside for a few minutes and take a deep breath. It was nothing remarkable on the surface. My mother, who was with me right then, said, “Uh oh. Someone must have died.” No, it wasn’t like that at all. For one moment, I was there in a room with the distraught mother, Mary, and a drag queen named Cassandra. In that instant, I WAS Mary and Cassandra both. I couldn’t put into words how I felt, other than to say the old cliché that reading truly can make you walk in someone else’s shoes. It is so hard to explain that moment of epiphany – one of the reasons why we in fact spend our precious time with our noses in books.
“It’s hard to live. It’s hard to keep walking around and change into new outfits all the time and not just collapse.”
I don’t know how Michael Cunningham does it. I really don’t. His writing has not yet failed to dazzle and leave me with a bundle of emotions that seep over into my everyday life. But someday, when I make that trip to Provincetown again, I’m going to roam the streets looking for his cottage. And I’m going to knock on his door and ask him. I have a feeling that he won’t turn me away. I don’t think he’s that kind of a guy.
“The light that fell from the limpid sky seemed almost visibly to be thawing the earth, and it was possible to imagine, on a day like this, that a huge rolling kindness, soft and unremarkable, more closely resembling human sentimentality than the more scourging benevolence of God, did in fact prevail in the world.”
April 5, 2019
After some thought, I think I might be ready for this review.
Right, I’ve read some of Cunningham’s novels before. Three of them. I loved two of them. The third one not that much (reread?). I loved ‘The Hours’, but ‘A Home at the End of the World’ cut too deep. I can feel it still, after all these years. (Specially when it gets really cold!!).
I started this book with a really good feeling about it. I just knew it was going to be great. I could feel it. (‘The Goldfinch’, I’m looking at you). And I was right. It was great. Epic, dare I say. So there’s this family, five people. No pets. We follow their lives. So good. Cunningham does it brilliantly. We love these people. We are there. We live the same lives.
The writing is just... Stunning. Peaceful. A sense of magic (it’s a kind of magic, magic...Magic!); when you’re going through the pages. Not magic realism, nooo... It’s a just a feeling. Peace and fear. No beginnings and no ends. Everything fits, yet everything crashes. There’s the pain, yes. But there’s beauty, there’s art, there’s family and love. New York and the sky. The light and the ocean. And then there’s pain again. And again. It hurts, yes. But it hurts so good.
Right, I’ve read some of Cunningham’s novels before. Three of them. I loved two of them. The third one not that much (reread?). I loved ‘The Hours’, but ‘A Home at the End of the World’ cut too deep. I can feel it still, after all these years. (Specially when it gets really cold!!).
I started this book with a really good feeling about it. I just knew it was going to be great. I could feel it. (‘The Goldfinch’, I’m looking at you). And I was right. It was great. Epic, dare I say. So there’s this family, five people. No pets. We follow their lives. So good. Cunningham does it brilliantly. We love these people. We are there. We live the same lives.
The writing is just... Stunning. Peaceful. A sense of magic (it’s a kind of magic, magic...Magic!); when you’re going through the pages. Not magic realism, nooo... It’s a just a feeling. Peace and fear. No beginnings and no ends. Everything fits, yet everything crashes. There’s the pain, yes. But there’s beauty, there’s art, there’s family and love. New York and the sky. The light and the ocean. And then there’s pain again. And again. It hurts, yes. But it hurts so good.
September 19, 2024
One of my very favorite books, ever, and I just realized I’d accidentally given 5 stars to Flesh and Blood, by Michael Crummey, instead, 🤣.
May 15, 2019
I can't think of much to say about this. It's a novel that won't essentially do Michael Cunningham's reputation as a novelist any harm or any good. The main characters in this three generational family saga interested me rather less than two of the minor characters - a drag queen called Cassandra and a big-hearted mixed-race kid called Jamal. There's a lot of soul searching (too much for me) and a lot of pretty writing but every day I was much more keen to read the Muriel Spark novel I had on the go. This, in comparison, felt like a chore. That said, it's pretty accomplished for a second novel.
January 5, 2013
Everything that is trite and heavy-handed in novels is present here: there's an aging patriarch, kleptomania, lots of long descriptions of the way twilight moves across a neighborhood, self-mutilation, child abuse, questions of immigrant identity, questions of gender identity, questions of sexual identity, a whiff of incest, death, AIDS, drug abuse, New York, the suburbs, tract housing, class conflict, shifting American demographics, paeans to urban space, roiling hatreds in families, love, generational traits, generational conflict, sentences describing irrelevant objects as if they're sentient -- really, horror upon horror.
And I loved every page of this book, deeply and truly.
Cunningham's deft touch, his empathy, his love of beauty, all of them are astounding. In life, I sometimes have quick moments of Rolland's "oceanic feeling" -- a sense that there is a unity and order to things, just beyond the grasp of my intellect but within the ken of my feelings.
Cunningham must walk around feeling like that all of the time, except his intellect is actually up to the task. Amazing.
Novels, even poor ones, have a hand in teaching me *how* to live. There is something deeply moving about reading something that reminds you of the *why.* Five stars!
And I loved every page of this book, deeply and truly.
Cunningham's deft touch, his empathy, his love of beauty, all of them are astounding. In life, I sometimes have quick moments of Rolland's "oceanic feeling" -- a sense that there is a unity and order to things, just beyond the grasp of my intellect but within the ken of my feelings.
Cunningham must walk around feeling like that all of the time, except his intellect is actually up to the task. Amazing.
Novels, even poor ones, have a hand in teaching me *how* to live. There is something deeply moving about reading something that reminds you of the *why.* Five stars!
September 3, 2022
3.5 Stars
Michael Cunningham's novel Flesh and Blood is the multi-generational chronicle of the Stassos family. He begins with the mismatched couple of Constantine and Mary and gives them 3 very complex children that they don't understand. All of the members of this family are frequently alienated from each other. Susan, Billy, and Zoe eventually leave home and try to figure out who they are outside of their dysfunctional family. And Susan and Zoe each go on to have a son.
Cunningham's writing is beautiful and is full of wonderful sentences and phrases:
"She understood the absorption and the urgent, almost bodily hunger for time, simple uninterrupted time in which to work."
"raised on a thrift hard as bone"
"Sometimes the things he heard himself say didn't match what was in his heart."
Cunningham also writes a beautiful death, not an easy feat.
A lot happens in this novel, and a lot of the story is pretty bleak. I see the themes of loneliness/alienation, loyalty, forgiveness, and death.
I don't relate to most of the characters, though I can see their distress and sympathize with them. Cassandra, Zoe's friend, is my favorite and a stand out for me. I can see and hear her as if she is here in the room with me. She is funny and feisty, confident in who she is; and Cunningham shows the scars under the veneer. She is the one character I would love to meet and spend time with.
I am struggling to rate this novel. While I love the writing and was pulled into the story in places, for much of the story I felt like I was at a distance watching it unfold, a problem for me as I like to be immersed in literary worlds. So better than a like and not quite a love for me.
Note to Julie: there is incest in this tale.
Michael Cunningham's novel Flesh and Blood is the multi-generational chronicle of the Stassos family. He begins with the mismatched couple of Constantine and Mary and gives them 3 very complex children that they don't understand. All of the members of this family are frequently alienated from each other. Susan, Billy, and Zoe eventually leave home and try to figure out who they are outside of their dysfunctional family. And Susan and Zoe each go on to have a son.
Cunningham's writing is beautiful and is full of wonderful sentences and phrases:
"She understood the absorption and the urgent, almost bodily hunger for time, simple uninterrupted time in which to work."
"raised on a thrift hard as bone"
"Sometimes the things he heard himself say didn't match what was in his heart."
Cunningham also writes a beautiful death, not an easy feat.
A lot happens in this novel, and a lot of the story is pretty bleak. I see the themes of loneliness/alienation, loyalty, forgiveness, and death.
I don't relate to most of the characters, though I can see their distress and sympathize with them. Cassandra, Zoe's friend, is my favorite and a stand out for me. I can see and hear her as if she is here in the room with me. She is funny and feisty, confident in who she is; and Cunningham shows the scars under the veneer. She is the one character I would love to meet and spend time with.
I am struggling to rate this novel. While I love the writing and was pulled into the story in places, for much of the story I felt like I was at a distance watching it unfold, a problem for me as I like to be immersed in literary worlds. So better than a like and not quite a love for me.
Note to Julie: there is incest in this tale.
September 5, 2022
What an absolutely wonderful slice-of-life story.
After having already fallen in love with Cunningham's earlier story A Home at the End of the World through adaptation, and finally reading it last year, then loving it again all the more, this was a curious peek into how the writer's other work would compare:
Magnificently.
Confirming what was already apparent in the aforementioned book, too: Cunnigham's narration is remarkably lifelike and intimate with its undramatic telling. The narration lives authentically in a moment, without commenting on the story's events from outside with premeditated moralities or judgements or pasted on emotions, but instead, jumping between multiple fascinatingly reflective POVs, lets the characters themselves to think and react spontaneously, live with themselves and with each other which ever way they may.
All of which makes each of the separate story threads of the beautifully varied cast of individuals that much more compelling and touching. And in the process of knotting the characters together by their shared loves and losses, creating and up-keeping their family ties in both good and bad, the story keeps pulling the reader, too, more and more into the complicated relationships and simple realities of these people, so convincingly presented through their inner voices, with their human flaws and strengths on display.
Although very similar with their lifelikeness and reflectiveness (and bittersweetness), I found, that where "Home" was more focused on youthful search of self and separation, with the POV of parents' own self-doubts serving as a contrast to the offspring's story, here it felt the generations were truly equal; equally lost in the pace of their colliding lives and own individual experiences.
Yet, with all of these personalities, even at its most tumultuous, the story exists in a pleasantly calm manner. Not making a spectacle of itself.
Loved this. And though it can't quite beat A Home at the End of the World, I have to admit, that if there wasn't pre-existing, rooted sentimentality attached to the former, this would be a tough contestant.
_________
Reading updates.
After having already fallen in love with Cunningham's earlier story A Home at the End of the World through adaptation, and finally reading it last year, then loving it again all the more, this was a curious peek into how the writer's other work would compare:
Magnificently.
Confirming what was already apparent in the aforementioned book, too: Cunnigham's narration is remarkably lifelike and intimate with its undramatic telling. The narration lives authentically in a moment, without commenting on the story's events from outside with premeditated moralities or judgements or pasted on emotions, but instead, jumping between multiple fascinatingly reflective POVs, lets the characters themselves to think and react spontaneously, live with themselves and with each other which ever way they may.
All of which makes each of the separate story threads of the beautifully varied cast of individuals that much more compelling and touching. And in the process of knotting the characters together by their shared loves and losses, creating and up-keeping their family ties in both good and bad, the story keeps pulling the reader, too, more and more into the complicated relationships and simple realities of these people, so convincingly presented through their inner voices, with their human flaws and strengths on display.
Although very similar with their lifelikeness and reflectiveness (and bittersweetness), I found, that where "Home" was more focused on youthful search of self and separation, with the POV of parents' own self-doubts serving as a contrast to the offspring's story, here it felt the generations were truly equal; equally lost in the pace of their colliding lives and own individual experiences.
Yet, with all of these personalities, even at its most tumultuous, the story exists in a pleasantly calm manner. Not making a spectacle of itself.
Loved this. And though it can't quite beat A Home at the End of the World, I have to admit, that if there wasn't pre-existing, rooted sentimentality attached to the former, this would be a tough contestant.
_________
Reading updates.
November 3, 2023
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the other two Michael Cunningham novels I've read - The Hours and Specimen Days. It's less adventurous. Flesh and Blood is a family saga which takes place from the 1960s through to the 1990s and is narrated from the perspective of a father, a mother, a son and two daughters. Cunningham can write women really well and also the unhappy struggles to conform to what is pinchingly expected as normal in society.
March 11, 2024
This sprawling novel by Michael Cunningham covers several generations of the Stassos family over a period of time spanning a century beginning in 1935 where we first meet eight-year old Constantine working in his father’s garden but thinking about his own garden, a square of powdered granite he had combed into the top of his family’s land. The theme of the land and its bounty is a metaphor running throughout the book. In 1950, Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant laborer, marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian-American girl. In the following years, they have three children, Susan, an ambitious but reserved beauty with her own deep secrets, Will a brilliant homosexual son winning a scholarship to Harvard, and Zoe, the wild and bright-eyed child that no one understands. This is backdrop of the family dynamics that play out over the generations as they struggle to come of age amid the changing twentieth century. Over the years as we scenes of the family play out, the cracks begin to show as one is drawn deeper into the perspectives of each character. And as author Michael Cunningham has control of the narrative amid luscious and descriptive prose. There is a lot of subtlety in this many-layered novel that one feels compelled to remain with this “messy” Stassos family, a beautiful book.
”Fat waves rolled lazily up against the Battery, broke blue-black and glittering, with a faint sound of exhalation. The sky over Manhattan held an immense and agitated light, here gray threaded with yellow, there an unsteady, aquatic green. In the harbor the Statue of Liberty held its book as tiny people stood inside its head, looking out.”
May 20, 2025
I will qualify this book as unhealthy; that is the feeling it gave me from start to finish. I was not too fond of it, and I read it with a certain detachment. Sometimes, I didn't recognize the characters, and I didn't get attached to them either. In short, I didn't manage to fit into this book as I do with other readers. It's blah for me.
June 18, 2021
I’m a sucker for family sagas, especially if they span decades and feature a gay son. This one, however, takes the cake. I devoured it, was gasping for breath at times, and sobbed like a child at the end. Not bad for my first Michael Cunningham. 10 stars.
May 8, 2022
I’ve read this novel twice many years apart, and I’m still hard-pressed to think of many works as equally glorious. Able to capture great swaths of life, from everything I feared as a child—the strained suburban silences and amorphous defeat—to the restless pull of the grave. Every chapter offering the satisfactions of entire novels so that the reading experience is about savouring every line, every twitch of feeling. Cunningham able to make your own life feel precious enough for prose, its minutes saturated in meaning. An existence filled with “effervescence” and “gold-washed air.”
July 4, 2016
Crying in public on your bus home from work I think might be the best sign of a good book. This tore me apart and felt especially relevant what with Pride season upon us. No one can capture humans in all their ugliness and touching banality like Michael Cunningham does. I think I felt the saddest after physically feeling myself leaving the little world and atmosphere the book created. No matter how much you grasp the paperback tightly, to the point that the pages begin to warp slightly, thinking that'll accomplish everything and anything, the feelings, thoughts and impressions the story leaves you with always dissipate a bit too unremarkably for my liking.
January 27, 2020
This spectacular gem from the 90s is by author Michael Cunningham who wrote the award winning The Hours. It was made into a highly acclaimed movie w Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Flesh and Blood is another winning achievement by this gifted writer. As I read this book, I experienced some of the most memorable prose I’ve ever witnessed. All this and a story about a dysfunctional family? Lol. It’s a win win situation. The characters are so real, I believe Cunningham is not only a writer but a master of psychology. This is difficult to achieve but the author pulls it off in a style that is unique and eye opening. The Stassos family portrayed in Flesh and Blood are probably like many families with issues but somehow with Cunningham’s touch, we are seeing everyday people in a very personal manner, not seen in most family sagas. Through the authors lens, we are introduced to many microcosms of life itself that most writers are not capable of portraying. Enjoy Constantine, Mary, Billy, Susan, Zoe....their trials and tribulations...as only a classical contemporary master of words can present.
August 8, 2017
Per me superiore a "Le ore". Mi ha lasciato addosso una sensazione tra nostalgia e tristezza. Continueró ad approfondire l'autore con "una casa alla fine del mondo".
January 20, 2025
Текст - безумнівно божественний. Каннінгем пише дрібненькими яскравими мазками - читається легко, читається цікаво. По сюжету в фокусі у нас сімʼя Константіна і Мері. У них троє дітей і кожного, звісно, свої проблеми - здебільшого, глобальні і серйозні.
Але.
Попри мою підготовленість до текстів Каннінгема (а це останній, не читаний мною роман письменника, крім нового “Days” 2024 року), було важкувато абстрагуватись від сюжету і сприймати певні епізоди не буквально, а з думкою “що б це могло означати метафорично”. Бо буквально там іноді відбуваєтсья страшне, волосся ставало дибки. Людям, чутливим до сцен інцестуального характеру, читати, мабуть, не варто.
Але.
Попри мою підготовленість до текстів Каннінгема (а це останній, не читаний мною роман письменника, крім нового “Days” 2024 року), було важкувато абстрагуватись від сюжету і сприймати певні епізоди не буквально, а з думкою “що б це могло означати метафорично”. Бо буквально там іноді відбуваєтсья страшне, волосся ставало дибки. Людям, чутливим до сцен інцестуального характеру, читати, мабуть, не варто.
March 7, 2009
This is my absolute favorite kind of book. It tells the story of a family over three generations, basically. I love the way the author is able to show the dysfunctional nature of the family, by going into each characters' head and describing their often conflicting thoughts. It's very realistic in that way, one minute a person feels one way, the next minute another, and then you see how they decide to act on their feelings.
I related to the story quite a bit, I am one of three siblings, born around the same time, and with many of the same issues as the characters in the novel. It has all of the themes necessary for a great story, love, lust, fear, illness, loss, prejudice, comfort, addiction, peace and finally resignation.
The book I kept thinking about as I read it is The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, although I finished Flesh and Blood feeling much better than I did after The Corrections. Flesh and Blood didn't leave me feeling down at all. I just wanted it to last a little longer.
I related to the story quite a bit, I am one of three siblings, born around the same time, and with many of the same issues as the characters in the novel. It has all of the themes necessary for a great story, love, lust, fear, illness, loss, prejudice, comfort, addiction, peace and finally resignation.
The book I kept thinking about as I read it is The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, although I finished Flesh and Blood feeling much better than I did after The Corrections. Flesh and Blood didn't leave me feeling down at all. I just wanted it to last a little longer.
October 21, 2025
4,5*
Muito bom!
Admirei particularmente a forma como o autor nos faz mergulhar no universo interior de cada personagem, com a ajuda de recursos estilísticos muito bem utilizados e capazes de surpreender mesmo quem já leu centenas de livros.
Vou ter de reler As Horas!
Muito bom!
Admirei particularmente a forma como o autor nos faz mergulhar no universo interior de cada personagem, com a ajuda de recursos estilísticos muito bem utilizados e capazes de surpreender mesmo quem já leu centenas de livros.
Vou ter de reler As Horas!
March 4, 2008
I hate to think that Michael Cunningham is writing the same book over and over, because really, he isn't, but this one seemed like it had his "stock" characters. Strong, but quirky women, a gay man with some guilt over his sexuality, etc. Depressing at the end. Still a fairly decent book, but go pick up At Home At the End of the World for a much better read by him.
February 3, 2026
michael cunningham doet iets met me wat ik niet goed kan beschrijven. dit boek is heel anders dan the hours (al is het maar omdat je een familie generaties lang volgt, en niet 1 dag) maar toch heeft het een zelfde kern. er is iets kleins, een soort tedere menselijkheid gevormd door schaamte, die zo perfect wordt beschreven dat je niet anders kan dan er door opgeslokt raken. de mensen in dit boek begaan echt zulke grove fouten, en toch is het onmogelijk om ze te haten. ze willen, net als jij, gewoon een leven maken. en ze doen dat, net als jij, soms fout.
het is een hartverscheurend boek met prachtige beschrijvingen van leven met ziekte (zowel voor de zieke als de mensen eromheen) en de dood. ik ben er nog steeds een beetje stil van.
“But here in this restaurant, faced with her son's ardor and fragility, his aging hands, she knew finally and forever that she was not that woman. She was herself. She carried the long tangle of her history. All she could do was listen to her son with love and fear and a low distant crackle of rage as he smiled shyly and spoke, in a tentative voice, about a man he loved.”
“In every story about a man who asks the witch or the beast or the fish for too many wishes, isn't there a daughter whose job it is to die?”
het is een hartverscheurend boek met prachtige beschrijvingen van leven met ziekte (zowel voor de zieke als de mensen eromheen) en de dood. ik ben er nog steeds een beetje stil van.
“But here in this restaurant, faced with her son's ardor and fragility, his aging hands, she knew finally and forever that she was not that woman. She was herself. She carried the long tangle of her history. All she could do was listen to her son with love and fear and a low distant crackle of rage as he smiled shyly and spoke, in a tentative voice, about a man he loved.”
“In every story about a man who asks the witch or the beast or the fish for too many wishes, isn't there a daughter whose job it is to die?”
Read
May 12, 2024‘it seemed regrettable but right that this plenty he’d created, this magnificence, should take something out of the world. some people found love and an immense comfort. some women went blind, sewing. that was the way of things. matter can’t be created of destroyed, only rearranged. a little more here means a little less over there’.
BREAKING burgerlijkheid is niet zo burgerlijk
BREAKING burgerlijkheid is niet zo burgerlijk
October 22, 2024
2024: It did not take me 15 years to reread this. Only two. Haha. That's how good this book is. I knew when I reread it in 2022, that I wanted to teach it again should I ever teach the American Novels course again. So I did. And students loved it! I had an email from a student who wanted more books like it recommended to her, so I of course obliged.
This book is just so beautifully written. Cunningham is just one of the best writers working today. I think he's so underrated too. The Hours won the Pulitzer but then he just quietly faded from the mainstream again. But his work is still so good.
This re-read, I really liked Zoe. I originally found her to be sort of dull, but I think her characterization is so subtle, and there's something about her I find so captivating. She reminds me of my brother at certain moments and then of my mom too. I don't know. She feels familiar.
Cassandra is still fabulous. I feel like I've met Cassandra. I love the mother-daughter relationships she creates with Zoe and, to a certain extent, Mary. At times she feels a little bit like a caricature, but I think that's just her drag queen persona, perfectly wrought by a writer who's clearly known a Cassandra too.
I'm uncomfortable with the fat-phobic remarks regarding Magda. I can't tell if that's just a sign of the times (the 90s were fat-phobic as hell), Cunningham's own fat-phobia coming through (possibly as body dysmorphia is common in the gay community), or if it was an attempt to characterize Constantine, Will, and Susan, and their need to fit in to certain ideals (the American Dream, etc.). Whatever the case, I hated it.
2022: This book is still magnificent all these years later. I first read this in 2005 or 2006 at the recommendation of a close friend. I had seen The Hours and then read it but I was unprepared for how much BETTER this book is than Cunningham’s most famous work. The language is gorgeously wrought. The opening chapter remains one of the most memorable in my reading life. I still love Cassandra and want her in my life.
This time around, I don’t hate Constantine. I understand his motivations a little more than I did when I first read it. My heart hurts for Ben and Jamal. So much pain and loss.
Damn beautiful writing. Still one of my all time favorites. I’m so glad I reread it. Maybe in another 15 years I’ll pick it up again.
This book is just so beautifully written. Cunningham is just one of the best writers working today. I think he's so underrated too. The Hours won the Pulitzer but then he just quietly faded from the mainstream again. But his work is still so good.
This re-read, I really liked Zoe. I originally found her to be sort of dull, but I think her characterization is so subtle, and there's something about her I find so captivating. She reminds me of my brother at certain moments and then of my mom too. I don't know. She feels familiar.
Cassandra is still fabulous. I feel like I've met Cassandra. I love the mother-daughter relationships she creates with Zoe and, to a certain extent, Mary. At times she feels a little bit like a caricature, but I think that's just her drag queen persona, perfectly wrought by a writer who's clearly known a Cassandra too.
I'm uncomfortable with the fat-phobic remarks regarding Magda. I can't tell if that's just a sign of the times (the 90s were fat-phobic as hell), Cunningham's own fat-phobia coming through (possibly as body dysmorphia is common in the gay community), or if it was an attempt to characterize Constantine, Will, and Susan, and their need to fit in to certain ideals (the American Dream, etc.). Whatever the case, I hated it.
2022: This book is still magnificent all these years later. I first read this in 2005 or 2006 at the recommendation of a close friend. I had seen The Hours and then read it but I was unprepared for how much BETTER this book is than Cunningham’s most famous work. The language is gorgeously wrought. The opening chapter remains one of the most memorable in my reading life. I still love Cassandra and want her in my life.
This time around, I don’t hate Constantine. I understand his motivations a little more than I did when I first read it. My heart hurts for Ben and Jamal. So much pain and loss.
Damn beautiful writing. Still one of my all time favorites. I’m so glad I reread it. Maybe in another 15 years I’ll pick it up again.
November 1, 2023
I remember loving this book. I still wasn’t prepared for how much I would love it the second time around. I devoured it. I breathed it. And I am writing this, having spent the thirty minutes since turning the final page wracked with howling sobs. Not because it’s a sad book, mind you, though it has sadness in it. These were tears for the blinding beauty of this book, and all the blinding beauty in the world that it reflects. The beauty of hopes and disappointments, prides and shames, triumphs and defeats, loves and hates, joys and angers, lives and deaths.
These characters, man. I would like to write about them, but they are all so starkly, defiantly alive… just like no two real people are exactly alike, and no real person can ever be neatly described, so do the members of the Stassos family skirt comparison or definition. No doubt they would sneer at anything I’d have to say about them as mere condescension.
I shall have to be satisfied with this: The lives lived within this book are among the most beautiful, quietly heartbreaking of stories, ones I will undoubtedly return to again and again throughout my own life.
Addendum: Mary, the matriarch, is still my favorite of them all. Her shoplifting as a cure for housewife boredom and dissatisfaction, her reluctantly bonding with with Cassandra the transvestite (my second favorite character) over makeup advice, and her being fine with her husband’s affair until she finds out that the woman in question is fat, upon which she has a complete meltdown… Maybe one my favorite characters in all of fiction.
These characters, man. I would like to write about them, but they are all so starkly, defiantly alive… just like no two real people are exactly alike, and no real person can ever be neatly described, so do the members of the Stassos family skirt comparison or definition. No doubt they would sneer at anything I’d have to say about them as mere condescension.
I shall have to be satisfied with this: The lives lived within this book are among the most beautiful, quietly heartbreaking of stories, ones I will undoubtedly return to again and again throughout my own life.
Addendum: Mary, the matriarch, is still my favorite of them all. Her shoplifting as a cure for housewife boredom and dissatisfaction, her reluctantly bonding with with Cassandra the transvestite (my second favorite character) over makeup advice, and her being fine with her husband’s affair until she finds out that the woman in question is fat, upon which she has a complete meltdown… Maybe one my favorite characters in all of fiction.
October 7, 2009
So you think you have a dysfunctional family! Try this book on for size. It is a fascinating tale of a family which plays out over several generations. This gives the readers a real sense for how and where family dynamics come from.
It is a book that will appeal to many different groups of readers. Gay readers will embrace some of the affirming gay characters not to mention the endearing transvestite.
This is a book that speaks about love and forgiveness. This lends the book a spiritual dimension. I especially appreciated that since I am the author of a spiritually-themed novel. I am always on the outlook for books that uplift my spirit. While this book will try your emotions, it ends on a hopeful note.
If you liked The Hours, you will love this book too. The author writes prose as if it was poetry. He also has an uncanny knack for developing characters that are easy to relate to whether or not you can relate to the conditions of their lives. This book is a powerhouse. I didn't want to put it down.
Davis Aujourd'hui, author of "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude"
It is a book that will appeal to many different groups of readers. Gay readers will embrace some of the affirming gay characters not to mention the endearing transvestite.
This is a book that speaks about love and forgiveness. This lends the book a spiritual dimension. I especially appreciated that since I am the author of a spiritually-themed novel. I am always on the outlook for books that uplift my spirit. While this book will try your emotions, it ends on a hopeful note.
If you liked The Hours, you will love this book too. The author writes prose as if it was poetry. He also has an uncanny knack for developing characters that are easy to relate to whether or not you can relate to the conditions of their lives. This book is a powerhouse. I didn't want to put it down.
Davis Aujourd'hui, author of "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude"
August 2, 2021
I haven't read anything by Cunningham I haven't liked yet; he's without a doubt one of my favourite authors. I was excited to dig into his take of a family saga, but I didn't expect it to be so good! It was one of those rare novels when you dread the ending, and you don't want to stop living in this world. So many POVs and I enjoyed all of them, I believed all of them. Yeah, Cunningham has his stock characters and archetypes that come up in all his stories, but while reading I don't mind. I still believe this family exists, and I feel even for the horrible people. A warning, though: this can be a rather bleak and depressing, even though it's also a celebration of life.
August 7, 2018
Another stunning novel from one of America’s greatest writers.
Having being a huge lover of The Hours, both the novel and the adaptation, I’m unsure why it took me so long to get round to reading Flesh & Blood. Cunningham writes of life, and all of its complexities, like no other, whilst crafting beautiful, sparing prose.
I couldn’t recommend Flesh & Blood more, should you like to read fiction that explores the human psyche in the context of a family unit, and all of the spaces and emotions in-between.
Having being a huge lover of The Hours, both the novel and the adaptation, I’m unsure why it took me so long to get round to reading Flesh & Blood. Cunningham writes of life, and all of its complexities, like no other, whilst crafting beautiful, sparing prose.
I couldn’t recommend Flesh & Blood more, should you like to read fiction that explores the human psyche in the context of a family unit, and all of the spaces and emotions in-between.
August 24, 2024
Whew! What an amazing, meticulously described series of characters live in "Flesh and Blood" by Michael Cunningham. I mean they "live" in the sense that they will always be here in my copy of this book, even though many of them die within the pages. And for once at the end of the multigenerational story within, I feel no mourning for the characters because the author deals with the ending in such a thorough and satisfying way. Unfortunately, in the interests of not spoiling the plot, I can't reveal how he does so.
Also, the plot is no slouch! It's an event fantasmagorica! The happenings! The feelings about the happenings! The juxtaposition of ambivalent feelings about the happenings! I never knew what was going to happen around the next turning of the page! This is what I love!
The skeleton of the book is about the family created by Con (Constantine) and Mary which includes their three children Susan, Billy and Zoe. Later we get to know Susan and Zoe's children, one of whom becomes Billy's child through a series of events. However, it's chockfull of other important characters who become a sort of rag-tag family to each other. Major family clashes and alliances occur due to some inexcusable actions mainly by Con who is a bully, racist, etc. yet does manage to have redeeming qualities. No one in this book is one dimensional.
Each chapter in this three-part saga has a year as it's title: 1935, 1949, 1958 and so on until the last two: 1995, 2035. This enables the reader to keep track of how old everyone is as the storyline continues.
F & B begins in 1935 when Con is an 8 year old boy. We can immediately see where both his determination to succeed and his evil streak begin. He is molded by a cruel father who acts as his model for what a father is and does. Con desperately wants to please his father and to prove that he is worthy. At his tender age, he is determined to turn a dry scrap of throw-away turf into a garden.
And he was diligent. Every day he took his ration of water, drank half, and sprinkled half over his seeds. That was easy, but he needed better soil as well. The pants sewn by his mother had no pockets, and it would be impossible to steal handfuls of dirt from his father's garden and climb with them past the goat's shed and across the curving face of the rock without being detected. So he stole the only way he could, by bending over every evening at the end of the workday, as if tying down one last low vine, and filling his mouth with earth.
In 1968, Susan is a proper young lady in High School who wants to be prom queen. She is like a mini-me of her mom, Mary. Both of them are so tightly wound as they try to keep their surroundings, their looks and their futures within a tiny, acceptable box. By contrast, there is Marcia, the school floozy who could care less about reputations. She is also in contention for prom queen.
By being mean and sluttish, Marcia had taken herself to a realm where losing meant nothing because winning meant nothing.
Mary is starting to come unraveled by 1969 when she begins shop-lifting and taking Valium for breathlessness.
She'd stolen any number of little things, and always felt the same queasy satisfaction.
She finally asked her doctor if something might be wrong with her and was given a prescription for pale yellow pills.
Meanwhile, Con and his son Billy are in a constant battle or the verge of physical violence. Billy is smart, gay, an adrenaline junkie and unwilling to kowtow. Con is authoritative, demanding, thinks he's always right and deserving of respect for being the dad.
Constantine nodded. Every answer had to be smart, every movement had to mock and defy him. He knew that he loved his son-what sort of man doesn't?-but he wanted him to be different. He wanted, right now, to stand in this kitchen with his boy and talk to him about the world's elusive glory and its baffling, persistent disappointments. He wanted to wrestle with his son, to throw a football at him with all his strength.
But he couldn't really do that with his effeminate, cerebral son, now could he? Billy is much better aligned with his mom against Con who eventually get divorced. They are so incompatible. On the other hand, Mary gets along beautifully with Cassandra, a trans female. Their concerns and desires are quite similar.
1987, Mary This is what's happening. I live by myself in a five-bedroom house. My oldest daughter hardly speaks to me. My son loves other men. I'm trying to decide what to wear to lunch with the "godmother" of my younger grandson and I have no idea what to wear because I don't know what kind of place I'm going to and I've never had lunch with a man who wears dresses.
There's a lot of ambivalence of sentiment throughout which I feel is like real life. Sadness and happiness at the same time.
He cried, sometimes, from sorrow and a happiness he couldn't name.
Tears of joy, tears of sadness. It's all woven in this gorgeous book!
Also, the plot is no slouch! It's an event fantasmagorica! The happenings! The feelings about the happenings! The juxtaposition of ambivalent feelings about the happenings! I never knew what was going to happen around the next turning of the page! This is what I love!
The skeleton of the book is about the family created by Con (Constantine) and Mary which includes their three children Susan, Billy and Zoe. Later we get to know Susan and Zoe's children, one of whom becomes Billy's child through a series of events. However, it's chockfull of other important characters who become a sort of rag-tag family to each other. Major family clashes and alliances occur due to some inexcusable actions mainly by Con who is a bully, racist, etc. yet does manage to have redeeming qualities. No one in this book is one dimensional.
Each chapter in this three-part saga has a year as it's title: 1935, 1949, 1958 and so on until the last two: 1995, 2035. This enables the reader to keep track of how old everyone is as the storyline continues.
F & B begins in 1935 when Con is an 8 year old boy. We can immediately see where both his determination to succeed and his evil streak begin. He is molded by a cruel father who acts as his model for what a father is and does. Con desperately wants to please his father and to prove that he is worthy. At his tender age, he is determined to turn a dry scrap of throw-away turf into a garden.
And he was diligent. Every day he took his ration of water, drank half, and sprinkled half over his seeds. That was easy, but he needed better soil as well. The pants sewn by his mother had no pockets, and it would be impossible to steal handfuls of dirt from his father's garden and climb with them past the goat's shed and across the curving face of the rock without being detected. So he stole the only way he could, by bending over every evening at the end of the workday, as if tying down one last low vine, and filling his mouth with earth.
In 1968, Susan is a proper young lady in High School who wants to be prom queen. She is like a mini-me of her mom, Mary. Both of them are so tightly wound as they try to keep their surroundings, their looks and their futures within a tiny, acceptable box. By contrast, there is Marcia, the school floozy who could care less about reputations. She is also in contention for prom queen.
By being mean and sluttish, Marcia had taken herself to a realm where losing meant nothing because winning meant nothing.
Mary is starting to come unraveled by 1969 when she begins shop-lifting and taking Valium for breathlessness.
She'd stolen any number of little things, and always felt the same queasy satisfaction.
She finally asked her doctor if something might be wrong with her and was given a prescription for pale yellow pills.
Meanwhile, Con and his son Billy are in a constant battle or the verge of physical violence. Billy is smart, gay, an adrenaline junkie and unwilling to kowtow. Con is authoritative, demanding, thinks he's always right and deserving of respect for being the dad.
Constantine nodded. Every answer had to be smart, every movement had to mock and defy him. He knew that he loved his son-what sort of man doesn't?-but he wanted him to be different. He wanted, right now, to stand in this kitchen with his boy and talk to him about the world's elusive glory and its baffling, persistent disappointments. He wanted to wrestle with his son, to throw a football at him with all his strength.
But he couldn't really do that with his effeminate, cerebral son, now could he? Billy is much better aligned with his mom against Con who eventually get divorced. They are so incompatible. On the other hand, Mary gets along beautifully with Cassandra, a trans female. Their concerns and desires are quite similar.
1987, Mary This is what's happening. I live by myself in a five-bedroom house. My oldest daughter hardly speaks to me. My son loves other men. I'm trying to decide what to wear to lunch with the "godmother" of my younger grandson and I have no idea what to wear because I don't know what kind of place I'm going to and I've never had lunch with a man who wears dresses.
There's a lot of ambivalence of sentiment throughout which I feel is like real life. Sadness and happiness at the same time.
He cried, sometimes, from sorrow and a happiness he couldn't name.
Tears of joy, tears of sadness. It's all woven in this gorgeous book!
December 6, 2014
Flesh and Blood is another masterful work by Michael Cunningham, an incredibly gifted writer. Last year I read A Home at the End of the World, the author’s first novel. I absolutely loved it. Though I have not read his Pulitzer Prize winning The Hours, I have seen the movie based on the book several times; it is one of my all-time favorite films. This book written between the two others just mentioned is nothing short of superb.
The novel told from the third person POV chronicles three generations of the Stassos family beginning in post-World War II America. Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant, marries Mary Cuccio, a striking young woman of Italian heritage. Early in their marriage trouble develops and Mary soon feels she has married below her station. Things rapidly spiral downward in their relationship. They have three children. Susan, the oldest, like her mother is very attractive; ironically she pays a heavy price for her natural beauty. Her father has the disturbing habit of touching her often and for too long, suggesting sexual cravings for her. While outwardly she seems the most conventional and successful of the children, below the surface she is quite unhappy. Billy, the brightest of the three, has a stormy relationship with his father even as a young boy; their relationship becomes especially ugly when he announces he is gay. The younger daughter Zoe is wild, rebellious and reckless. It becomes obvious she is destined to have a troubled future. Add to the mix the romantic relationships of the adult children as well as the next generation of the Stassos family, Ben and Jamal. Each character adds further depth, darkness and occasional humor to the story. Especially memorable and endearing is Cassandra, a drag queen and Zoe’s close friend.
The story takes place over nearly five decades, from 1949 through 1995. In addition there is a three page snippet of Constantine’s childhood at the beginning as well as a two page conclusion that looks to the distant future (2035). The two brief chapters act as interesting and effective bookmarks for the main story.
Cunningham covers a broad range of issues in the book: a heavy-handed patriarch, an aloof mother, love, death, infidelity, incest, child abuse, drug abuse, kleptomania, generational tension, homosexuality, AIDS, self-mutilation, class conflict, and so much more. I like many people have often thought that I came from a dysfunctional family. The Stassos family takes that concept to a whole new level.
Cunningham is a master of prose, creating rich, complex characters and vivid images with his words. The tone of the book is one of melancholy and tragedy. There are no real villains or heroes but rather a cast of characters all with their own flaws. The book took me a longer than normal time to read not because it was dull or difficult. Rather I was captivated throughout the story and hated coming to the last page. I wanted to savor the work and not rush through it. I look forward to reading more of Cunningham’s works. He has quickly become one of my favorite authors.
January 6, 2018
I found this book quite depressing. I don't know if it's caused by the writing style or the characters personalities, but something made me so sad and uncomfortable reading it. I like the story though, even if it's disturbing and sad, sometimes a bit strange I'd say, especially the way the characters perceived, viewed and reacted to others, how oftentimes selfish and ruthless they were, not particularly in their behavior, but rather in their thoughts. Seldom, it was hard to read, because I couldn't help but think "Are people really like this? Are we truly so greedy and egoistic?" or "Is life supposed to be like this? So hard and unkind?" But now as I'm writing this, I'm finding answers to my own questions when I think about caring and loving people, that no, of course not, it's just the characters in this book. But still, it was a tough book sometimes due to this.
On the contrary, the idea of the plot really sparked interest in me, since it's about immigrants, life from scratch, several generations and family life. Even if there's a complete downfall of what was at the beginning whole. Because of this, it reminds me a lot of Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, but that book was way more positive and joyful, even despite all the struggles. I understand that it's unreal that their lives would be a fairytale, I wouldn't like it that way anyway, but it was too tragic for me in Flesh and Blood.
On the contrary, the idea of the plot really sparked interest in me, since it's about immigrants, life from scratch, several generations and family life. Even if there's a complete downfall of what was at the beginning whole. Because of this, it reminds me a lot of Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, but that book was way more positive and joyful, even despite all the struggles. I understand that it's unreal that their lives would be a fairytale, I wouldn't like it that way anyway, but it was too tragic for me in Flesh and Blood.
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