Day

As if relationships between siblings and spouses aren’t already complicated enough, Cunningham throws the isolation and distance of COVID into the mix.

I love this author’s ability to turn extremely authentic and simple domestic dramas occurring on one day into revelatory ideas about child-rearing and the expectations family members have of one another. A generation of young parents, their inquisitive children, the devotion of a brother and sister, and an infatuation between brothers-in-law are the subjects of this well-paced work.

The effect of the pandemic on a marriage, on family members' psyches, and the aftermath of one of their deaths… show more.

In the presence of truly beautiful writing, like Cunningham’s, a kind of magic vibrates off the page. I deliberately slowed down my reading, as I would savor an artisanal chocolate truffle, letting the complicated sweetness linger lest I devoured this book too quickly.

Cunningham’s otherworldly command of language makes him deft at giving voice to events I often struggle to understand. The book gave necessary meaning, and even promise, to my experience, and our collective experience, of the COVID pandemic.