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Specimen Days

By Michael Cunningham

(32)

| Paperback | 9780007156061

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Book Description

n each section of Michael Cunningham's new book, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. 'In the Machine' is a ghost story which takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienated realities of the new machinContinue

Critics

Time travelling with Walt Whitman

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham 308pp, Fourth Estate, £14.99 Is Specimen Days a novel, or three novellas loosely threaded together? This is just one of the many genre disputes in which this book can become ensnared. The opening story tackles hist ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

Ghost machines

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham Fourth Estate £14.99, pp320 This is less a novel than a linked trio of moving, bizarrely lyrical novellas meditating on Descartes's argument for the essential separation of mind and body, which makes of the perceiv ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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3 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

A cross between 1984 and Oryx and Crake. Brilliant!

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annemarie said on Oct 3, 2006 | Add your feedback

It's too much related to Washington way of life and politics.

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Stefania said on Mar 27, 2010 | Add your feedback

Really three novellas

This is the first of Cunningham's novels that I've read, and while genre fiction is not my usual preference, I enjoyed this novel thoroughly. I think "In the Machine" and "The Children's Crusade" were the strongest entries, though that may well be because I'm not particularly a sci-fi fan (that be ... (continue)

This is the first of Cunningham's novels that I've read, and while genre fiction is not my usual preference, I enjoyed this novel thoroughly. I think "In the Machine" and "The Children's Crusade" were the strongest entries, though that may well be because I'm not particularly a sci-fi fan (that being said, though, I still shed a tear at the end of the "Like Beauty"). The idea of Walt Whitman's poetry (among other things) connecting the three stories is a clever idea, though I feel the credulity of it was being pushed, especially in the final story. The writing was amazing though, and I wm willing to forgive so many things in lieu of good writing.

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Arrogance said on Jun 11, 2007 | Add your feedback