The Snow Queen

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.

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

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

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