The Cosmology of Bing

by Mitch Cullin

At Eric's Rotisserie, Bing sat outside by himself, nursing white zinfandel beneath the large sunshade that jutted from the center of his table, while blustery wind roamed across campus--swirling dead leaves and bits of trash around the chairs and tables, flapping the awnings on the massive umbrellas. The weather kept the patio abandoned, and Bing preferred it that way--no chatty couples nearby, no loudmouth students talking about sports, or, even worse, popular music. On this chilly afternoon, he didn't care that he was alone. He didn't care that he'd left his coat in his office. And, for a moment, he almost didn't mind that his head wasn't quite screwed on tightly today. In The Cosmology of Bing Mitch Cullin offers a tale of intersecting lives during one school year in Houston: the college student and his artist roommate, the reclusive poet, the astronomer studying a supernova at a remote West Texas observatory, the young Japanese woman hopelessly in love with her gay friend--and at the center of this group is Bing Owen, a college professor who drowns his heartbreak, paranoia, and secret desires with alcohol. It's a darkly humorous novel about longing, buried feelings and muted relationships, forgotten poetry and thrown pies--in which the mysteries of love, the interconnectedness of individuals, and the inexplicable nature of attraction occupy the same microcosm as exploding stars, ghost lights, and specters from the past.

Genres: Fiction

207 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Mitch Cullin is an American writer. He is the author of seven novels, and one short story collection. He currently resides in Arcadia, California and Tokyo, Japan with his partner and frequent collaborator Peter I. Chang. His books have been translated into over 10 languages.

Reviews

[Alex Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to Disgrace Cullin also talks of a professor, an intellectual for whom life has passed him by. Only here, Cullin ends the round as a tale of self discovery for all those involved.

By not showing us the break but the result of the break, Cullin allows us to see how two estranged lovers come to heal by being there for each other in a way they could not find apart, but tried.

In a way, missing here, Cullin allows us to draw a connection to a mysterious "big bang" which is felt but not seen. I expected the end to be more dramatic than it was, but it still has its mode of satisfaction. In some sense, the character Bing is too weak to stand on his own; too uninteresting as half the narrative is shared with Nick. That makes the title a bit of a misnomer for me as a good part of the story doesn't fall into focus as being about Bing; as Nick's tale, being interesting, is still to a degree irrelevant.