Kirjanurkkaus

Mizzy is becoming - Peter's not stupid, he's crazy but he's not stupid - his favorite work of art, a performance piece if you will, and Peter wants to collect him, he wants to be his master and his confidant [...] Peter doesn't want him to die (he really and truly doesn't), but he wants to curate Mizzy, he wants to be his only... his only. That will do, really. The basic setting and general description of Michael Cunningham's new novel didn't sound like something I could relate to personally: the book tells about Peter and Rebecca Harris, a middle-aged couple living in relative comfort and luxury in Manhattan, NY. Modern urbanites, busy in a hectic metropolis. Both work in the art world: Peter owns an art gallery and Rebecca is a magazine editor. Their everyday life is interrupted by the visit of Rebecca's younger brother, Ethan (or "Mizzy"), who is an impulsive, unruly, dreamy 23-year-old, interesting in "doing something in the arts...

We spent every day together. It was the kind of reckless overnight friendship particular to those who are young, lonely, and ambitious. Gradually, item by item, Bobby brought over his records, his posters, his clothes. We spent just enough time at his house for me to know what he was escaping from: a stale sour smell of soiled laundry and old food, a father who crept with drunken caution from room to room. Bobby slept in a sleeping bag on my floor. I read this novel after watching the film by the same name for which Michael Cunningham also wrote the screenplay (starring e.g. Colin Farrell and Robin Wright Penn ). Bobby and Jonathan grow up in the 1960s and 70s experimenting with drugs and listening to the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and Van Morrison in Cleveland. Their friendship ends when Jonathan moves to New York to study and befriends Clare, an eccentric jewellery-maker. They embark on an artistic, bohemian lifestyle while orphaned Bobby remains drifting in blissful aimlessn...

Tätä he siis olivat. Titaanirankaan kiinnitettyä lihaa. Lihan saattoi kaapia pois kuin kermavaahdon. Simon puristi omaa hauistaan varovasti ja samalla tunnustellen peukalon ja etusormen välissä. Sen sisällä kulki tanko, kirkasta hopeaa. Amerikkalainen Michael Cunningham tunnetaan ehkä parhaiten romaanistaan The Hours (1998, suom. Tunnit ), josta on tehty myös Oscar-palkittu elokuva . Cunninghamin uusin romaani ei ole aivan niin syvällinen kuin Tunnit , mutta monitasoisuutta löytyy taas. Romaani seuraa kolmen päähenkilön, naisen, miehen ja pojan elämää kolmella eri aikakaudella. Mistään aikamatkailusta ei ole kyse vaan pelkästään kolmesta eri ajasta, jolloin kolme eri henkilöä jollain tavalla tuntevat tai törmäävät toisiinsa. Romaanin ensimmäinen osa, Koneen rattaissa , sijoittuu New Yorkiin teollisen vallankumouksen aikoihin. Catherine on juuri menettänyt kihlattunsa, Simonin, juuri ennen häitä miehen jäädessä jumiin tehtaan koneen rattaisiin. Simonin pikkuveli, Lucas, ottaa vel...