Michael Cunningham has always been a favorite author of mine, his writing style is accessible but brilliant and always makes me wish I was half as articulate in either my thought or speech as his prose and characters.

His inimitable style is on bold display in this latest novel, Day, which follows the lives of several interconnected characters on one day in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The characters are all interesting, messy, flawed, deeply human people and it was a joy to read about them and delve deeper into their internal lives. When reading you feel as if you really get to know these people, like members of your own dysfunctional family. In this novel, perhaps more so in any other of Cunningham’s work that I’ve read, the characters are balanced, nuanced, and play impeccably well off each other. The plot, such as it is, is given less weight than the character’s internal struggles and development which is no bad thing when the writing it this good.

I will continue to eagerly pick up anything Michael Cunningham writes, and this novel is a great reminder of why that is.