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Specimen Days
by Michael Cunningham


6.5

based on 27 reviews
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Like his previous novel "The Hours," Cunningham's "Specimen Days" brings together three stories separated in time, but unified in both setting (New York City) and references to Walt Whitman.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 352 pages
06/07/2005
$24.00

ISBN: 0374299625

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times David Ebershoff

What determines the success of this is, I believe, the author's moral vision. Cunningham cares most passionately (and most knowingly) about the largest and most hopeful human experiences: compassion, community, art, connection -- the infinite manifestations of love. It is his unique moral vision that successfully hinges three distinct narrative panels into a triptych of unified beauty. It's what raises his individual stories out of their genres into the glorious realm of art.

New York Observer David Thomson

This is a transforming book, the lovely, tattered record of our time and place, and of our wish to prevail. [30 May 2005, p.1]

Library Journal Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

Cunningham's vivid prose captures the intricate weave of love and expectation that propels the hopes of one generation as it fades into another. [15 May 2005, p.104]

Publishers Weekly

With its narrative leaps and self-conscious flights into the transcendent, Cunningham's fourth novel sometimes seems ready to collapse under the weight of its lavishness and ambition--but thrillingly, it never does. This is daring, memorable fiction.

The Onion A.V. Club Donna Bowman

Cunningham seems to have invented his own literary form, and in Specimen Days, he crafts it with a master's assurance.

Houston Chronicle John Freeman

Like its namesake, this novel is a work so original it unfolds with a whiff of inevitability. You will find it hard to believe it did not exist before. That is what prophecy does; it brings the world full circle, creating and containing at the same time.

Daily Telegraph Philip Hoare

It is that abiding, dreamlike, cinematic sweep of time - and our place within it - which makes Specimen Days an ultimately satisfying, richly rewarding and deeply enjoyable book.

The Independent Marianne Brace

Specimen Days isn't always convincing but, like Leaves of Grass before it, makes us look again. Whitman is the poet of celebration.

London Review Of Books Jacqueline Rose

This is Cunningham’s most ambitious novel and, for me, his finest. Leaves of Grass is the text spoken by the characters, but he has named his novel after Specimen Days, which brings the ecstasy of Whitman’s poem back to ground.

The Observer Michel Faber

Specimen Days, in among its misfires and misjudgments, contains more incidental beauty and emotional insight than many impeccably dull items on the shortlists of prestigious literary prizes. And it's by far the best gothic historical sci-fi cop thriller you'll ever read.

The Observer Jane Stevenson

A provoking and rewarding novel, with many incidental pleasures, though at times, the issues are so close to the surface that the narrative feels like shallow waters overlying the reefs and shoals of Philosophy 101.

Daily Telegraph Sam Leith

As a novel of ideas, Specimen Days manages to be both entertaining and moving.

Washington Post Ethan Canin

I, for one, wish Whitman weren't a part of any of it, but that truly is not a major concern. The Whitman motif is just one aspect of Cunningham's brave experimentation, and even an experiment with an unwanted result can be a successful experiment.

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

While Specimen Days may have its flaws, it is clearly and often compellingly the work of a gifted storyteller with an ambitious mind and a lyrical writing style.

USA Today Deidre Donahue

Just when most literary fiction reads like an endless meditation on how many neurotics can dance on the head of a pin, along comes Michael Cunningham's wildly ambitious, brave new novel, Specimen Days.

Village Voice Joy Press

None of Specimen Days' moving parts fit together precisely, each one too swollen with ideas and prose to be a cog in this contraption. But Cunningham's vision of history is enthralling and messy.

Boston Globe Gail Caldwell

It is a love song of a novel, rich and melancholy and overflowing with smartness, and if it veers off-road a bit at the peak of its race -- well, even that seems a wildness in keeping with America's bard.

LA Weekly Michelle Huneven

Whatever else can be said about this wildly ambitious book, Cunningham’s mastery of the sentence and beautifully wrought image is never, ever in question.

Salon Laura Miller

While the devices and clichés of genre fiction can make it entertaining but shallow, the narrative listlessness of a lot of literary fiction often undermines its lovely prose and delicate character insights. Readers seldom get both in one package.

Chicago Tribune Donna Seaman

Those who read open-mindedly and believe that artists are free to follow wherever their imaginations lead, readers who value novels of ideas, enjoy variations on themes and strongly delineated patterns, recognize Cunningham's superb craftsmanship and pick up on his sharp wit and connecting vision--they will find much to contemplate and enjoy.

The New York Times Book Review Terrence Rafferty

Both a very bad book and a very brave one.

The Economist

The first section is eerie and distinguished. The second is charming. The third stinks.

Atlantic Monthly Joseph O'Neill

Michael Cunningham is one of the most humane and moving writers we have; but the toiling quality of Specimen Days suggests that (unlike, say, David Mitchell) he may lack the naturally impassioned formalism required to make a multi-genre novel come truly to life.

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

Exquisitely written but bizarre and disjointed.

The New Republic Deborah Friedell

It is a testament to the faith that we place in the novel that we sometimes think that it can do everything at once. But everything is a very big subject. Michael Cunningham's imagination is not as vast as Whitman's, and his talents are no match for so many multitudes.

The Independent Peter J Conradi

[Cunningham] evidently wants his fiction to surprise its author as much as its readers, and thus Specimen Days is always unexpected and brave.

The New York Times Michiko Kakutani

Reads like a clunky and precious literary exercise -- a creative writing class assignment that intermittently reveals glimpses of the author's storytelling talents, but too often obscures those gifts with self-important and ham-handed narrative pyrotechnics.

The average user rating for this book is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jake S gave it a0:
Boring and a waste of time to read!

Melissa J gave it a9:
Beautiful prose and characters that make you ache. Cunningham makes every line seem vivid and real. My favorite was "In the Machine," and I connected with the characters (save a slightly cliche Luke) of the last novella, but the coarse Cat of "The Children's Crusade" left me cold, and I found myself confused by the child terrorist theme. But overall, it's a wonderful book that stays with you and makes you think. Beautifully done.

Ben W gave it an8:
The first section was OK, the second was brilliant, and the third was fine, but read more like he was trying to channel Margaret Atwood. Sadly, he wasn't too successful. Still, he's got a great knack for writing, and it's an enjoyable read throughout.

Danny W gave it a10:
Mad good

Andy Q gave it a9:
I love Cunningham's writing. I read one sentence and want to read the next. But here, he leads us through the stories with other temptations - the style of a detective thriller or a sci-fi book - the repeated themes and images. I loved it, and also found the lines of Whitman beautiful - tying together the stories with a vision of community and humanity and nature. So, it's not been as well received as the Pulitzer winning "The Hours". It's still a top rate work by an amazing writer.

Erich E gave it a2:
This is really an atrocious book with a glimmer of style and failed attempt at depth. The first two parts were vaguely interesting, though they amounted to very little in their attempts to deal with poetry, love, factory labor, race, class, terrorism, Manhattan geography, transcendentalism, forensic psychology, death and any number of other subjects. I stopped reading the third part after about 2 pages. I won't mention why because I don't want to spoil anything for anybody foolish enough to read this book, but I frankly have no idea how it even got published.

Joshua B gave it a10:
Quite wonderful...lyrical and touching.

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Specimen Days
by Michael Cunningham