On My Night Table

BY NIGHTFALL BY MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM

Michael Cunnignham has written some great work. This is a good book but not one of his great ones, but his version of good is better than most.  This story is about Peter, an art dealer, and his marriage to Rebecca, an art magazine editor, and her brother Mizzy (short for mistake, no hard-to-read symbols in this work) a younger drug-addled twenty-something who shows up to crash on their couch.

The New York City art world is explored as is beauty, marriage, family, adultery, and middle-aged malaise.  The story is told simply, elegantly and in a very detailed way over the less than 250 pages.  There are really only a few things that actually happen in the book, but his writing is so good that I slowly read each word and enjoyed any tangents that were explored.

As the story neared it’s ending, I found some of what happened a little implausible and then the last conversation between the two main characters could’ve been more dramatic, but overall, the book worked as an elegant look at life in early-century New York told through a white, middle-class marriage and all that those things entail.  If you are a fan of Cunningham’s work, and haven’t read this, then do. If you’re not a fan, try Flesh and Blood or The Hours by the author and if those impress you, then read this one.