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A review by agmeade
The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
5.0
There are moments when a writer's prose takes you by surprise; when their skill with weaving words leaves you breathless and awestricken. This is one of those moments. I've been meaning to read Mr. Cunningham for years, and I finally picked up several of his books. I decided to begin with the one that I'd never heard of. I have such high expectations for The Hours, and I felt that perhaps I might be better suited to jump into something with none of that built up anticipation.
Often times I've found that authors who write this well are incapable of telling an engaging story. It seems that there's a disconnect between the "literary" skill and the "story-tellers" art. I will admit that I believed that to be the case with The Snow Queen. I was so, so wrong. This novel is fantastic. This. Novel. Is. Fantastic.
The story centers around the lives of two brothers, one gay and somewhat aimless, the other creative and drug-addled. The satellite characters weave in and out of their lives, changing them in Both fundamentally real and superficial ways. These are lives that any person could live. These are stories that are so real, and so visceral, that I had to walk away several times. Not because it was bad, but because it was heartbreaking.
About halfway through, I posted on facebook that it "...Could just be that I'm not particularly interested in a story about drug use and hallucinations." And I'm not. This book is about so much more than that. This book is about the lives of two people who are searching for the perfect moment, for the answer to the biggest questions; "Who Am I? Why Am I Here?" and they are failing, but it is in no way meaningless. This is the struggle of humanity, even when we don't address it so bluntly.
The Snow Queen is a story of being human, and I think I would recommend it to just about anyone.
Often times I've found that authors who write this well are incapable of telling an engaging story. It seems that there's a disconnect between the "literary" skill and the "story-tellers" art. I will admit that I believed that to be the case with The Snow Queen. I was so, so wrong. This novel is fantastic. This. Novel. Is. Fantastic.
The story centers around the lives of two brothers, one gay and somewhat aimless, the other creative and drug-addled. The satellite characters weave in and out of their lives, changing them in Both fundamentally real and superficial ways. These are lives that any person could live. These are stories that are so real, and so visceral, that I had to walk away several times. Not because it was bad, but because it was heartbreaking.
About halfway through, I posted on facebook that it "...Could just be that I'm not particularly interested in a story about drug use and hallucinations." And I'm not. This book is about so much more than that. This book is about the lives of two people who are searching for the perfect moment, for the answer to the biggest questions; "Who Am I? Why Am I Here?" and they are failing, but it is in no way meaningless. This is the struggle of humanity, even when we don't address it so bluntly.
The Snow Queen is a story of being human, and I think I would recommend it to just about anyone.