This was another of the books I really enjoyed while I was on vacation. I picked it up because I enjoyed The Hours which is by the same author and was interested to read something else by the same person. I was also curious if the author might be interested in time as concept, considering the titles of both books...
And Day is about time, sort of, but mainly about family. It's set across a day with sections called Morning, Afternoon and Evening. The wrinkle? The morning, afternoon and evening are in different years, so the book actually spans 2019, 2020 and 2021, following the same family.
In the morning of 2019, Isabel and her husband Dan are struggling with the fact they need to kick Isabel's younger brother out of their loft where he's been living while recovering from his most recent break-up. Amid the morning chaos of getting kids off to school, we see the strain their marriage is under and the deep affection both of them have for Robbie which is making it harder to ask him to move even though they know their ten-year-old son needs the space to begin asserting his independence. Robbie, who is unsatisfied with his life, has created an online persona much more adventurous and glamorous than himself and revels in posting and watching followers eat it up.
In the afternoon of 2020, the world is locked down and the family is stuck in the apartment. Violet, the youngest child is terrified of the virus and berates anyone who leaves a window open, certain that's the way the virus will get in. Nathan, the older son has now moved into Robbie's attic and uses his newfound privacy y to break the rules while distracted, his parents suffer through their fracturing marriage without really speaking to one another. Robbie, who left the country just prior to the COVID outbreak, is trapped in a cabin in Iceland, still posting from the perspective of his glamorous alter-ego.
I won't go into detail of what happens in the evening of 2021, but it beautifully wraps up this family's story and shows how they've made it through this time of crisis and through an the other side. There are glimmers of hope for their futures and a certainty that their resilience will allow them to move past this.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought it might be fragmentary and frustrating in that it's episodic, but the three sections ft together so beautifully, following characters you can't help but feel affection for, even while you're frustrated by some of their actions. The decisions made in one section echo through the next, showing us how things we do can ripple through our lives, across years and affect everything.
So, I'd recommend this one. It's literary, but not a challenging read. The characters are very real and flawed, frustrating you at every turn with their choices or inertia in making choices.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, falling in and out of love, losing the things that are most precious—and learning to go on—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours
April 5, 2019 : In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house—and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. Meanwhile Nathan, age ten, is taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents.
April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe, while Nathan attempts to skirt her rules. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts—and his secret Instagram life—for company.
April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality—with what they’ve learned, what they’ve lost, and how they might go on.
From the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Day is a searing, exquisitely crafted meditation on love and loss and the struggles and limitations of family life—how to live together and apart.
April 5, 2019 : In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house—and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. Meanwhile Nathan, age ten, is taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents.
April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe, while Nathan attempts to skirt her rules. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts—and his secret Instagram life—for company.
April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality—with what they’ve learned, what they’ve lost, and how they might go on.
From the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Day is a searing, exquisitely crafted meditation on love and loss and the struggles and limitations of family life—how to live together and apart.
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