Book Review: Day

Day
by Michael Cunningham
Review by Bel
A soothing, gentle read if you like novels rich in character and beautiful sentences. Cunningham offers a unique take on the pandemic (I thought I was sick of reading about it but turns out I’m not). Covid is never the focus. It’s the characters’ interior lives that are brought to the foreground, which makes for an intimate read.
The book unfolds on April 5th in three consecutive years: 2019, 2020 and 2021. These three days in the characters’ lives focus on small moments, where the reverberations of the big ones are keenly felt. There’s space and time for consequences to be weighed and measured as they go about their daily lives, which are profound in their universality – so often the most insurmountable question on any given day in any given partnership is, ‘but what will we do about dinner?’ So relatable! Cunningham very cleverly reveals plot via the negative space of these moments. He is a master-stylist – we always feel we’re in good hands.
The characters crept up on me – worked their way right under my skin, and I happily moved through the quiet moments of their days, noticing small changes – growth and backwards steps, the opening and closing of hearts. Let this one surprise you with its beauty and compassion.