Lazy Man's Review: Specimen Days

[coalescent]

Specimen Days, Michael Cunningham's latest novel, is another one of those mainstream-writers-does-sf books. Not dissimilar in structure to Cloud Atlas, it's made of three stories: one set in 1850, one in the present or very near future, and one in about 2150. The same three characters--or at least the same three souls--crop up in each: Catherine, a

Comments

[grahamsleight]

Nice discussion: I'm a big fan of The Hours, but haven't yet got to SD. I assume the draft review you let me have a look at is still going to appear Somewhere? BTW, the book I mentioned which discusses the Children's Crusade in some detail is Blake Morrison's _As If_, about the James Bulger murder. Want a lend?

[coalescent]

Per fjm's suggestion, I emailed Mr Hartwell about Nova Scotia, and mentioned that I had a review of Specimen Days if he'd like to see it. Haven't heard back on either count, yet.

And yes, I'd be interested in As If. It's not like my to-be-read pile is out of control, or anything ...

[grahamsleight]

You only have one "To read" pile? How disappointingly unambitious. :)

[kalorlo]

However, it's probably taller than he is :p

[iainjclark]

I think I'll have to keep going until every sentence is a different story and then I'll have to stop," he laughs.

So he's going to stop right after he's written Cloud Atlas? ;-)