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Lost Son
Spanning western Europe from 1875 to 1917 and presenting a gothic historical Paris that subverts our old assumptions regarding the City of Light, M. Allen Cunningham's new novel brings a brooding atmosphere and human complexity to an intimate and imaginative portrait of one of the most uniquely sensitive artists of his time, a poet whose odd childhood and difficult early life will both fascinate and perhaps help explain his determination to stay true to his artistic vision at almost any cost. Here is Rainer Maria Rilke in the grip of his greatest artistic struggle: life itself.
Rilke's gripping emotional drama as child, lover, husband, father, protege, misfit soldier, and wanderer is framed by a haunted young figure, a researcher who, a century later, feels compelled to trace Rilke's itinerant footsteps and those of Rilke's fictional alter ego, the bewitched poet Malte Laurids Brigge. The result is an exploration of the forever imperfect loyalties we face in work and life, the seemingly immeasurable distances that can separate life and art, and the generational tensions between masters and admirers.
Rilke's gripping emotional drama as child, lover, husband, father, protege, misfit soldier, and wanderer is framed by a haunted young figure, a researcher who, a century later, feels compelled to trace Rilke's itinerant footsteps and those of Rilke's fictional alter ego, the bewitched poet Malte Laurids Brigge. The result is an exploration of the forever imperfect loyalties we face in work and life, the seemingly immeasurable distances that can separate life and art, and the generational tensions between masters and admirers.
- GenresFiction
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 3, 2006
1 person is currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
M. Allen Cunningham
20 books42 followersM. Allen Cunningham published his debut novel The Green Age of Asher Witherow at age 26. Set in nineteenth-century Northern California, The Green Age served as the inaugural title for independent publisher Unbridled Books, was widely acclaimed, was selected by the American Booksellers Association as a #1 Indie Next Pick, was a Finalist for the Indie Next Book of the Year Award in a shortlist with Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, and Joyce Carol Oates' The Falls, was named a “Best Book of the West” in the Salt Lake Tribune, was a USA Today Novel to Watch, and was dubbed a "Regional Classic" by the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association. Foreword Reviews praised The Green Age as "a feat reminiscent of William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness," and later called Cunningham "one of America's most promising voices." Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler called the novel "a startling accomplishment," and Booklist said it "displays a mastery that is surprising in a novelistic debut." The Green Age was published in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by Atrium Verlag. Audible released an audio edition in 2014.
Three years after his debut, Cunningham released Lost Son (Unbridled Books), an experimental biographical novel about Rainer Maria Rilke which was the culmination of more than 10 years of reading, writing, research, and travel. Ihab Hassan, one of the 20th century's most distinguished critics, said "the magic of Rilke reach[es] out from every page," and called Lost Son "a subtle and signal imaginative achievement, putting readers on notice: an extraordinary talent has come upon the scene." Lost Son was added to the official Rilke bibliography by a consortium of European scholars. Cunningham was interviewed at length alongside Russell Banks, Michael Cunningham, Anita Diamant, Ron Hansen, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jay Parini for the book Truthful Fictions: Conversations with American Biographical Novelists (Bloomsbury, 2014, ed. Michael Lackey). Lost Son receives in-depth consideration in scholar Zivile Gimbutas' study of 20th-century artist novels entitled Artistic Individuality, where it is featured beside the work of authors Willa Cather, James Joyce, John Updike, and Virginia Woolf. Lost Son was listed as a Top 10 Book of 2007 in The Oregonian, and reviewer Vernon Peterson said "Cunningham's writing is beautiful and fluid. I found myself torn, lingering over passages and yet eager to rush on...But I'm not sure it's right to see Lost Son simply as a fictional biography of Rilke. It is also Cunningham's spiritual autobiography, his own fierce identification with the poet's commitment to art...mesmerizing."
Cunningham has subsequently published six other books, including the novel Perpetua's Kin (2018), a multi-generational story about American restlessness and the residual effects of war that spans most of North America over more than a century. "With Perpetua's Kin," says Pulitzer Prize Finalist Eowyn Ivey, "M. Allen Cunningham once again demonstrates he is one of the bravest and most talented novelists writing today. With each page we gain the greatest gift of fiction: an insight into our own trembling humanity."
Cunningham's shorter work has appeared widely in distinguished literary journals and magazines, and his new book Q&A will appear from Regal House Publishing in January 2021.
He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Portland State University, an instructor for Clackamas Community College, teaches advanced creative writing for UC Berkeley's ATDP, and has served as a guest lecturer and thesis advisor in the Pan-European MFA Program.
Cunningham hosts the weekly creativity podcast In the Atelier and the atmospheric Thoreau's Leaves
Three years after his debut, Cunningham released Lost Son (Unbridled Books), an experimental biographical novel about Rainer Maria Rilke which was the culmination of more than 10 years of reading, writing, research, and travel. Ihab Hassan, one of the 20th century's most distinguished critics, said "the magic of Rilke reach[es] out from every page," and called Lost Son "a subtle and signal imaginative achievement, putting readers on notice: an extraordinary talent has come upon the scene." Lost Son was added to the official Rilke bibliography by a consortium of European scholars. Cunningham was interviewed at length alongside Russell Banks, Michael Cunningham, Anita Diamant, Ron Hansen, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jay Parini for the book Truthful Fictions: Conversations with American Biographical Novelists (Bloomsbury, 2014, ed. Michael Lackey). Lost Son receives in-depth consideration in scholar Zivile Gimbutas' study of 20th-century artist novels entitled Artistic Individuality, where it is featured beside the work of authors Willa Cather, James Joyce, John Updike, and Virginia Woolf. Lost Son was listed as a Top 10 Book of 2007 in The Oregonian, and reviewer Vernon Peterson said "Cunningham's writing is beautiful and fluid. I found myself torn, lingering over passages and yet eager to rush on...But I'm not sure it's right to see Lost Son simply as a fictional biography of Rilke. It is also Cunningham's spiritual autobiography, his own fierce identification with the poet's commitment to art...mesmerizing."
Cunningham has subsequently published six other books, including the novel Perpetua's Kin (2018), a multi-generational story about American restlessness and the residual effects of war that spans most of North America over more than a century. "With Perpetua's Kin," says Pulitzer Prize Finalist Eowyn Ivey, "M. Allen Cunningham once again demonstrates he is one of the bravest and most talented novelists writing today. With each page we gain the greatest gift of fiction: an insight into our own trembling humanity."
Cunningham's shorter work has appeared widely in distinguished literary journals and magazines, and his new book Q&A will appear from Regal House Publishing in January 2021.
He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Portland State University, an instructor for Clackamas Community College, teaches advanced creative writing for UC Berkeley's ATDP, and has served as a guest lecturer and thesis advisor in the Pan-European MFA Program.
Cunningham hosts the weekly creativity podcast In the Atelier and the atmospheric Thoreau's Leaves
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2021
Lost Son follows Rilke's life from 1875 to 1915, incorporating the poet's letters into his text.
Rilke's parents had lost a daughter; his mother turned her son into that lost daughter, naming him Rene Maria and putting him in dresses until his father took a stand. Rene was sent to military school, where he endured much suffering.
His family had determined his sex, his education, his career, all unsuitable to his disposition and sensitive soul. He knew he was to be a poet.
At the center of his story is Lou, an older, intellectual, beautiful woman who eventually becomes his lover. Although married, she had remained a virgin. She listened to him, counseled him, consoled him, traveled abroad with him.
And then, held him at a distance. She studied with Freud, remained with her husband. Rilke met a young artist Clara. A pregnancy brought them to marry. Clara had studied with the master sculptor Rodin, and she encouraged her husband to write a monograph about Rodin.
Rilke took Rodin as his mentor, taking to heart the advice Rodin did not even follow: that work must displace everything else for the artist. Solitude was necessary for the artist to work.
And so he befriended women, felt eros, and fled.
Rilke struggled with his art in isolation, separated from his family, wandering from place to place, finding succor and temporary lodging, writing endless letters to Lou and Clara and everyone else he met along the way, pouring out his anguish and thoughts and communing from afar.
Rilke was out of France when the Germans took over; in effect, he was exiled from his home, his apartment, his possessions, his everything in this world.
"Even your papers are gone. Your manuscripts Your hundreds upon hundreds of letters and copies of letters...Uncle Jaroslav's old Rilke family crest. The small silver-framed photograph of your young Papa..." Cunningham writes, the chapter concluding with Rilke's letter to Princess Marie that ends,"Once again, my heart has fallen out."
Perhaps this is not a novel for 'everyone,' as Rilke's writing is not for 'everyone'. But for those who love the poet, it does feel right, a slant of light illuminating a difficult life. Cunningham immersed himself in Rilke's writings, especially those letters, and recreates Rilke's life in poetic prose.
Rilke's parents had lost a daughter; his mother turned her son into that lost daughter, naming him Rene Maria and putting him in dresses until his father took a stand. Rene was sent to military school, where he endured much suffering.
His family had determined his sex, his education, his career, all unsuitable to his disposition and sensitive soul. He knew he was to be a poet.
At the center of his story is Lou, an older, intellectual, beautiful woman who eventually becomes his lover. Although married, she had remained a virgin. She listened to him, counseled him, consoled him, traveled abroad with him.
And then, held him at a distance. She studied with Freud, remained with her husband. Rilke met a young artist Clara. A pregnancy brought them to marry. Clara had studied with the master sculptor Rodin, and she encouraged her husband to write a monograph about Rodin.
Rilke took Rodin as his mentor, taking to heart the advice Rodin did not even follow: that work must displace everything else for the artist. Solitude was necessary for the artist to work.
And so he befriended women, felt eros, and fled.
Rilke struggled with his art in isolation, separated from his family, wandering from place to place, finding succor and temporary lodging, writing endless letters to Lou and Clara and everyone else he met along the way, pouring out his anguish and thoughts and communing from afar.
Rilke was out of France when the Germans took over; in effect, he was exiled from his home, his apartment, his possessions, his everything in this world.
"Even your papers are gone. Your manuscripts Your hundreds upon hundreds of letters and copies of letters...Uncle Jaroslav's old Rilke family crest. The small silver-framed photograph of your young Papa..." Cunningham writes, the chapter concluding with Rilke's letter to Princess Marie that ends,"Once again, my heart has fallen out."
Perhaps this is not a novel for 'everyone,' as Rilke's writing is not for 'everyone'. But for those who love the poet, it does feel right, a slant of light illuminating a difficult life. Cunningham immersed himself in Rilke's writings, especially those letters, and recreates Rilke's life in poetic prose.
August 20, 2011
Still trying to decide exactly what I think of this book. I love this genre of novelesque pseudo-biography, and I certainly learned a lot about Rilke (things that made me rather sad for him, to be honest). But I'm not as sure that I love this guy's approach to the genre, and the book requires a significant time investment. Also, I wanted to know about Rilke's whole life, not just up to and slightly after his involvement in the war. But it's definitely worth a read if you're a Rilke fan.
November 20, 2011
A book that should be drank slow as an aged whiskey: it requires a patient and refined palate to process all of the overtones of solitude, the origins and sacrifices of creativity; how difficult and anxious the attempt to express the flavor of your experiences; the dangers and doubts of the path you've chosen. Drink it too fast and the language will inebriate you, dulling your ability to appreciate every nuance.
October 24, 2011
This biographical novel of the life of poet Rainer Maria Rilke contained I think too much detail. The author I think was hampered by a lack of raw material and was therefore forced to make too much of the letters and other sources he had. It was interesting mostly in its depiction of the life of a starving poet in Europe and the relationship between Rilke and Rodin provided an unusual insight into the famous sculptor.
August 2, 2012
Novel based on the life of poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Stunningly beautiful writing! An amazing young talent, While I don't find Rilke a particularly interesting person. I am pull through the book, word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph.
June 1, 2011
Couldn't get into this one. Two renewals and wasn't even half way through. To cerebral I guess. On to fluff!
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April 12, 2011So far, beautiful prose that is perfectly characteristic of the poet himself...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews