Deborah E

Michael Cunningham's Day: A Novel, focuses on one day, the same day, in three successive years, 2019, 2020 and 2021. These are the years before, during and after the Covid epidemic; the impact of which serves as background in the novel. The book looks at the life of a deteriorating family -- parents, children, uncles and aunt, how each fits in and how each moves away over the course of the three years.

The conceit of the book is unique and may be the most distinguishing part of the novel. More than the characters, two of whom are children, the story drives the book but may not be enough to create a riveting or memorable reading experience.

The family resides in a Brooklyn brownstone. It is here that the nuclear family, and its orbiting relatives, are introduced; and here that the initial family cracks are exposed. ( I am revealing nothing more than the book cover does ). The cracks only widen during covid, a time of generalized inconvenience and fear. These discomforts are likely exasperated by the embarkation of a crucial family member –- around whom much of the story revolves –- to Iceland for a short trip turned long by covid. Without him at the family's center, the family loses cohesion and the book loses force.

For the most part, the rest of the family is either not well enough drawn: or not compelling enough to carry the book through to its end without dragging: the family's decent into separation is not something that is emotionally engaging or something that one might care about. Though Cunningham explores and exposes some of their feelings, this family comes across as another American, New York City neurotic, self-involved, family which falls to pieces, quite literally, during covid. The reader isn't emotionally engaged with them, because they are not emotionally engaged with each other.

For those who didn't relate to or don't recall the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s; or who might be interested in a family saga of an extended family living through this covid epidemic, Cunningham's book may present an interesting read; but in the end, covid or not, the family and it's issues were not compelling enough for this reader to care.