3+ stars
Set on April 15th of 2019, 2020 and 2023, Michael Cunningham's novel Day is an intimate exploration of of the lives of Isabelle, her husband Dan and brother Robbie. They live together in a Brooklyn brownstone with Isabelle's and Dan's 2 children Nathan (10) and Violet (3). The children adore their Uncle Robbie and he, them. Isabelle and Dan adore him too, but maybe too much. Dan admits to himself that he loves his brother in law beyond the normal boundaries, but not in a way that he would want a physical relationship. Isabelle knows this, but she too has more of an attachment to Robbie than typical sibling caring. Isabelle and Robbie had long ago created an imaginary person who now embodies the form of "Wolfe", an Instagram darling. Wolfe's persona is on of insight, self-awareness bordering on being a guru. "Likes" immediately follow any posts that he makes. It is through Wolfe that Robbie and Isabelle express their most intimate feelings.

The trouble is, that Isabelle and Dan are more in love with Robbie than each other. As the children get older, it is time for them to have their own rooms, which means Robbie must find a new place to live. No one is looking forward to this.

With 2020 comes the pandemic and more entrapped introspection. Robbie is stuck in an isolated cabin in Iceland unable to travel back home. Will 2021 provide healing or turmoil? I won't spoil that here.

Cunningham is an artist with prose. His opening passage moves through the Brooklyn neighborhood in the same way Hitchcock moved his camera in the opening of Rear Window. He creates his characters and places in a way that lets you see the depth of each.

In the 2021 section, I have to admit, he lost me a bit. Some of the dialogue of the children did not seem like thoughts children their age would have. Being that this drove a portion of the story, I had a little trouble with it.

Fans of Michael Cunningham will enjoy falling back under the spell of his prose.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest open.

I really enjoyed the structure and concept of this book. I liked the timejumps as it gave me insight into the family and its changes over time.

Day by Michael Cunningham is a look at one day in the life of a family broken up into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening segments over the course of 3 years, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Michael Cunningham is definitely influenced by Virginia Woolf not only in the structure of looking at a life in a single day (i think The Hours was similar), but also by the quiet interiority and the futile passiveness with which they accept their circumstances. Everything seems to happen to them and they feel like they have little control and so the characters accept it for what it is.

Honestly I was entranced by this book. Very little seems to happen, yet so much does. The action of the story largely occurs outside the text. They are dealing with the end of a marriage, mental health, raising children who are also struggling, living with family in an urban center, figuring out what to do with your life in your 30s, job instability, a pandemic, loss, and more. This gives the book a forward motion, helped by the time jumps, which I feel other very quiet introspective books sometimes lack. The writing was gorgeous and I did become very invested in the characters who were beautiful, complicated, and sometimes frustratingly flawed but so human and relatable.

My biggest complaint was that Garth, Chess, and Odin felt like extraneous characters. They didn’t quite belong and I thought that the sections that foused on them didn’t do enough for the book. I would have rather seen that time used for Isobel, Dan, Robbie, Nathan, or Violet. Having them have their own sections felt like it brought me out of the bubble of the family unit which is what I felt Cunningham’s main purpose was especially in light of it taking place before, during, and “after” the pandemic.

Overall it was enjoyable and short chapters made it a quick read despite it feeling quiet, slow, and methodical.

Definitely worth picking up if you liked The Hours (I’ve only watched the movie 🤦🏻‍♀️), or enjoy Virginia Woolf, or other books that take place in a day and have some aspects of stream of consciousness.

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for my ARC for a fair and honest review!

I don't even know how to describe this novel. On one hand it's an intimate family drama, layered and complicated relationships, hints at things past, the nuance of every day life. On the other, it's a meditation on time passing - the novel takes place on one day: April 5. Specifically in the morning of 2019, the afternoon of 2020, the evening of 2021.

By living with the same characters across these three days, we observe their growth, the changes in the relationships, the coming together and the natural moving apart. Their secrets, their dreams, their visions. Their flaws.

A lot can happen in a day. I loved the intimacy of Day, the honest humanity. Cunningham's prose is gorgeous and this was a sublime read. I'd visit these characters in 2022 and beyond in a heartbeat.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

I actually read this book in one day and I found it was fantastic and so intriguing. The author really made me think about all of the characters and I loved it.

Once again, Cunningham has written a beautiful, elegant novel. Day is set on April 5, 2019, 2020 and 2021. It is a Covid novel and expresses the loneliness of the various characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Wow! What an incredible written story.

This books follows a family on the same day, but three different years (2019,
2020, 2021). Living in Brooklyn, Dan and his wife Isabel are just going through the motions of marriage. Isabel’s brother Robbie is living with them, along with their two small children Nathan and Violet.

The characters were well developed and written with great detail. They were such a mish mash group, but it kept this book really interesting. This also shows how Covid plays a big role in their lives. Each character was affected by it in their own way. It showed how it changed their lives and what they wanted for their future.

This book was written beautifully. A definite must read!

📘: Day by Michael Cunningham
🗓️: November 14, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley, Michael Cunningham, and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Reviewed on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Late last year, I was introduced to Michael Cunningham’s work through The Hours, a book I had been meaning to read for a long time. I loved the way he played with time, focusing in on a single day in the lives of three women. In Day, he returns to the temporal theme, exploring three days in the life of his characters, one per year from 2019 to 2021.

Starting in 2019, we meet Dan and Isabel, her brother Robbie and their children Nathan and Violet. Along the way we pick up Dan’s brother and his friend/lover. Through these characters, Cunningham explores different relationships and the strain that events can have on them. The couples serve are foils to each other, both relationships complicated in their own ways. Robbie is on his own but still set in contrast to the couples in his single life. Everything is further complicated by the pandemic, which lingers in the background in the second and third part but is never explicitly called out.

One of the best parts of The Hours is Cunningham’s sentences and that continues here in Day. He’s a beautiful writer, able to add such grace to everyday scenes. Sometimes, his writing felt a bit overwrought here but I overall enjoyed it. His observations on life through these characters were brilliant at times and completely relatable. Some of his characters were….a little less so, especially the two kids who didn’t seem like kids their age at all (except, perhaps, Nathan in one of the scenes towards the end). Violet in particular was just odd; it’s a bit unclear what he was trying to accomplish with her character who seemed very unrealistic.

Overall I really enjoyed this one but maybe not as much as The Hours. It’s a pandemic novel without being too much a pandemic novel, perfect for those who life meditations on real life.

I have a distinct memory of being 18, the summer after my senior year of high school, reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham. I was so impressed by the writing and loved the story, and it's a book that I've re-read many times over the years - which is rare for me.

Day struck me in just the same way. The writing in this book is so lovely -- Michael Cunningham continues to have such a way with words and descriptions.

This book takes places over 3 years, just a glimpse in to one single day each year -- April 5th. Through this, we meet Isabel, her husband Dan, her brother Robbie, and Isabel's two children -- Nathan and Violet. We see the point of view of each character, and are able to really get inside their head and know what they are thinking.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the fictional Instagram account that Robbie has created - I could so vividly picture every post he wrote, could imagine Wolfie and the things Wolfie was doing. It was a sweet bit of comedic relief in the somewhat heavy family dynamics.

I have read quite a few books that include the pandemic, and many that include that anxiety inducing first part of the pandemic -- but this is the first one I've read where a character's experience was so similar to my own - at home with a 17 month old toddler. Michael Cunningham captured those feelings so well.

Overall this is a family drama told in an unconventional way, with endearing characters and very realistic situations. I loved it and would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

This is a great “day in the life” story about a normal family on the outside but not doing so well on the inside. It covers the morning of a particular day in 2019, then the afternoon of the same day in 2020, then the evening of the same day in 2021. Not a happy story by any means but very emotional, very vulnerable. Great character development. Good story line. Your heart kind of hurts a bit as the story unfolds.

On April 5, 2019, cracks begin to surface in the veneer of domestic bliss within a cozy Brooklyn brownstone. Dan and Isabel, a troubled couple, find themselves entangled in a complex web of emotions toward Isabel's younger brother, Robbie. As the wayward soul of the family residing in the attic loft, Robbie's departure, driven by the need to move on from a recent breakup, threatens to fracture the family bonds. Simultaneously, ten-year-old Nathan takes tentative steps towards independence, while five-year-old Violet attempts to ignore the growing divide between her parents.

Fast forward to April 5, 2020, and the brownstone transforms into a semblance of a prison as the world goes into lockdown. Violet's fear of leaving windows open becomes obsessive, driven by a need to keep her family safe. Nathan, on the other hand, tries to navigate around her rules. Isabel and Dan's communication is reduced to veiled jabs and frustrated sighs, while Robbie, stranded in Iceland, grapples with isolation in a mountain cabin and his clandestine Instagram life.

By April 5, 2021, emerging from the depths of the crisis, the family confronts a new, altered reality. They reflect on the lessons learned, the losses incurred, and contemplate how to move forward. As the world undergoes transformative changes, the narrative follows a family navigating the storms of growing up, growing older, experiencing love's ebb and flow, facing profound losses, and ultimately learning to persevere. "Day" skillfully avoids placing the pandemic at the forefront, instead opting to explore the emotional impact of the crisis on individuals' lives. This quiet yet compelling story encapsulates the days, months, and years when life underwent unprecedented changes, marked by the solemn toll of lives lost and the echoing bells of remembrance.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

the prose is absolutely stunning, perhaps setting the bar too high for others.

this book presents a sincere and unfiltered examination of confinement, anxiety, self-doubt, change, and complex family relationships. it's a quietly beautiful narrative capturing a moment that profoundly affected everyone on the planet and the subsequent repercussions that altered numerous lives.

this proved to be a heartfelt read, ranking among the finest pandemic novels i've encountered.

I really hate to bail on a book,but I’ve read sixty-five pages and I just can’t continue any longer. I find the characters in this novel to be so bland and inconsequential and the fact that they are hipsters living in Brooklyn makes it all the worse for me. Maybe I need to try it again at a later date-I don’t feel anything for the characters ,their children or their lives. It’s all so dull and plot-less.cAnd I find the characters and their children very annoying.

A portrait of a single day spread across three years, 'Day' by Michael Cunningham is a beautiful, heartbreaking, raw look at the relationships and inner thoughts of a family. Isabel and Dan are parents to two children, Violet and Nathan, and Isabel's brother Robbie lives in their NYC apartment with them at the opening of the book. We also later meet Dan's brother Garth, and Chess, mother to little baby Odin who Garth fathers. Beginning on the morning of April 5, 2019 and ending on the evening of April 5, 2021, we follow the inner monologue of this group of people who are so close together yet painfully far apart. I grew to feel for each of these characters and while the book was the perfect length, I wished I could have spent just a little bit more time with them.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Day by Michael Cunningham starts with a compelling premise–a look at one family on three individual days: April 5, 2019, April 5, 2020, and April 5, 2021. So, before the pandemic, in the midst of it, and as it is fading from attention but certainly not gone. And while I’m not quite sure I’m ready for pandemic stories, I did really love Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout, so I thought I’d give this one a try.

The father in the family is Dan, a forty-ish stay-at-home dad who took time off from his rock-star ambitions and is now trying to make a comeback. It’s hard to call it a comeback, though, since his career never really took off in the first place. The mother is Isabel, a driven photography editor for a magazine, who works long hours, makes good money, and is growing depressed over the fact that print magazines are soon to be a thing of the past. They have two children, a tween boy who is wrapped up in his friends and wants to distance himself from his parents, and a six-year-old daughter, a pleaser, who is a bit fey. At the center of the story is Robbie, Isabel’s younger brother (younger being his late thirties.) Robbie is the cool, gay uncle who lives in their attic apartment. Both Dan and Isabel are, the novel makes a point of saying, in love with Robbie. It’s not sexual, just romantic. Robbie is in love with them too. However, he has just been dumped by his latest lover and feels he really needs to get on with his life. He teaches sixth grade and hates it. He was admitted to medical school long ago, but didn’t go, and thinks maybe he should reapply. Mainly though, he feels he needs to move out of his sister’s house–if only he could find something decent in his price range in NYC.

This is all established in chapter one, in 2019. It’s fairly clear that the family is bound together by very loose threads. In 2020, those threads are unraveling, but the characters have nowhere to go. (Although Robbie does get away, to Iceland, where he is stranded.) In 2021, the adults are able to physically separate, but the kids are still trapped.

The writing is quite fine, with a narrative distance that fits well with a pandemicky, claustrophobic, fearful vibe. However, the characters never came alive or seemed like real people. The emotions were analyzed rather than felt. And for all they were living through history, the drama focused on small domestic trials, and the stakes remained small with muted conflicts. One motif of the novel was the Instagram character “Wolfe,” whose daily life events were posted by Robbie with occasional input by Isabel – a sort-of handsome-ish, likeable everyman. The photos were stolen from stock photos on the internet. He wasn’t real but seemed vaguely real. This is how the characters of Day seemed to me.

I was very intrigued by the concept of Michael Cunningham’s Day.

This story takes place in three parts, April 5, 2019 in the morning, April 5, 2020 in the afternoon and April 5, 2021 in the evening. Over the course of the novel, we follow Isabel, Dan, their children Nathan and Violet, Isabel’s brother Robbie, Dan’s brother Garth and Chess. This story very much was a stream of consciousness in the life of these people in their day to day life.

I found the first section to be a bit long and wished for a bit more of the middle and end sections. The start of the last section definitely hit the emotional spot. I really loved Robbie’s perspective along with Violet’s. I felt like it was a bit too much to include Garth and Chess’ perspectives. It took a bit away from the main story.

Overall I liked this one, but wished for a bit more in the story.

Any time I read something by Cunningham, I find passages that take my breath away. He is a master of his craft and that is on display in “Day” yet again.

Spanning the same day over three years, the novel tells the story of an extended family facing life-changing shifts in the connectivity of their unit.

“The Hours” is one of my favorite books, so I had high hopes for “Day.” While I found moments of the story to be beautiful - and beautifully written - the entire tale failed to grip me. This is a book I’d like to revisit in the future, once the pandemic is a bit further behind us.

Thanks to RandomHouse for the ARC!!

How life can change over 3 years! One day, you are making plans to change your living situation acknowledging your kids now need their own space, next day you are trying hard to not to strangle in each other stuck in the same close quarters. and next you find out that nothing matters but the sense of loss.

April 5th was the day for this family. It was the day all of them knew exactly where they were and what they were doing. 2019 - they saw the first cracks in their happy family. Brother was leaving them. Sister and her husband started to understand what brother exactly meant for them. 2020 - Covid struck. Brother was (happily) stuck in Iceland. Sister and her husband were realizing they were never been the family they thought they were. 2021 - Well, it was a disaster on its own.

I really liked how the story was structured around the specific date. It was enough the air all dirty laundry. show all grievances, and remind of happy days when the family was 5. While it was partially about Covid, it wasn't book's main focus, which I appreciated.

Some of the most beautiful writing I have ever experienced. Yet, the reader should be aware of something - this book is about the redundancy and mundaneness of everyday life. The "story" is in Michael Cunningham's writing, which proves to be some of the best of any modern author I've ever read.

Admittedly, and I think intentionally by the author, I found myself often questioning... what is the point? Most of the book is the characters' own inner longings and grievances, yet their inability to actually do anything about their inner desires. And then something so painfully close to home happens to the character that is the most likable and it puts the entire novel in perspective... that humans have a tendency to waste day after mundane day of their lives wishing for something greater, instead of appreciating all of the beauty in the mundane that is right in front of us... day after day.

Brilliant, yet I feel many readers will fail to understand it... which makes it all the more brilliant? I finished it a few DAYs ago and it has grown on me with each that passes.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the ARC.

Day is the story of a family, observed for just one day a year for three years. We meet a husband, a wife, a brother, a son, and a daughter on April 5th 2019. It feels as though they’ve been living their current lives forever, but there’s a breeze of change blowing in. We see them again the following year, in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, we meet up with them one last time in 2021. Emerging from lockdown, they all must face a world that, like them all, has changed.

This is a very character-driven novel, almost entirely lacking in plot. While the writing is well done, the absence of plot and action meant this was only a so-so read for me. It was quick and easy but I didn’t feel like there was anything to set it apart from all the other Pandemic Novels that are springing up everywhere right now.