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Title details for The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham - Available

The Snow Queen

A Novel

by Michael Cunningham
Claire Danes
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

A darkly luminous new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours

Michael Cunningham's luminous novel begins with a vision. It's November 2004. Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up at the sky; there he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. Barrett doesn't believe in visions—or in God—but he can't deny what he's seen.
At the same time, in the not-quite-gentrified Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett's older brother, a struggling musician, is trying—and failing—to write a wedding song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is seriously ill. Tyler is determined to write a song that will be not merely a sentimental ballad but an enduring expression of love.
Barrett, haunted by the light, turns unexpectedly to religion. Tyler grows increasingly convinced that only drugs can release his creative powers. Beth tries to face mortality with as much courage as she can summon.
Cunningham follows the Meeks brothers as each travels down a different path in his search for transcendence. In subtle, lucid prose, he demonstrates a profound empathy for his conflicted characters and a singular understanding of what lies at the core of the human soul.
The Snow Queen, beautiful and heartbreaking, comic and tragic, proves again that Cunningham is one of the great novelists of his generation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 6, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427233394
      • File size: 195629 KB
      • Duration: 06:47:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 17, 2014
      Two brothers grapple with aging, loss, and spirituality in this haunting sixth novel from the author of The Hours and By Nightfall. Barrett Meeks, a middle-aged retail worker with boyfriend troubles, is walking through Central Park one evening when he notices a mysterious light in the sky—a light he can’t help but feel is “apprehending ... as he imagined a whale might apprehend a swimmer, with a grave and regal and utterly unfrightened curiosity.” Uncertain what to make of his vision, Barrett returns to the Bushwick, Brooklyn, apartment he shares with his drug-addicted brother, Tyler, and Tyler’s wife, Beth, whose cancer has come to dominate the brothers’ attention. As ever, Cunningham has a way with run-on sentences, and the novel’s lengthy monologues run the gamut from mortality to post-2000 New York City. But at its heart, Cunningham’s story is about family, and how we reconcile our closest human relationships with our innermost thoughts, hopes, and fears. Tyler and Barrett have “a certain feral knowledge of each other” and enjoy “the quietude of growing up together.” They connect over Beth’s illness, and contemplate the unique pressures of dying before one’s time. “Did Persephone sometimes find the summer sun too hot, the flowers more gaudy than beautiful?” Beth wonders. “Did she ever, even briefly, think fondly of the dim silence of Hades?” Cunningham has not attempted to answer any of life’s great questions here, but his poignant and heartfelt novel raises them in spades.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A swell of urgent stringed music introduces a lovely narration by Claire Danes of award-winning author Michael Cunningham's latest novel. Danes's melodious voice melds a story that spins from a Hans Christian Andersen fairy-tale quotation to New York's Central Park, where Barrett Meeks sees something wondrous in the night sky. As Barrett, his brother, and their friends and lovers navigate life's messy, joyous, sad, funny, odd meanderings, we remember the vision in the sky and question with them what, if anything, it meant. Narrating with clarity and a touch of gentleness, Danes voices characters who sound typically American, while also infusing them with a wonderment that subtly signals Cunningham's transcendent examination of love, fate, and the meaning of it all. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from June 15, 2014

      Cunningham's (The Hours) latest is the story of Barrett and Tyler, two brothers living in Brooklyn in the early 2000s, each facing his own midlife struggle. Tyler is engaged to Beth, who has been diagnosed with stage IV cancer, and Barrett has moved in with them, having just been dumped by his boyfriend. Despite its title, the novel doesn't follow the structure of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and only lightly references that story's images of snow, mirrors, and enchantment. The appeal of Cunningham's Snow Queen lies in the author's expert rendering of the setting and social group the book revolves around, in his gift for the internal monologs of his characters, and in his wonderful prose, rather than in a strong plot. Narrator Clare Danes delivers an exceptionally good performance. Her clear, thoughtful reading is suited to both Cunningham's moments of soaring, lyrical language and to the casual, irreverent tone of the dialog among friends. VERDICT A well-written novel that's enriched by the audio performance. ["In concise yet descriptive language, Cunningham weaves the secret of transcendence through the mundane occurrences of everyday life," read the starred review of the Farrar hc, LJ 3/15/14.]--Heather Malcolm, Bow, WA

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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