Review: Flesh and Blood

Flesh and Blood- Michael Cunningham

I read The Hours last summer and was drawn to Cunningham's characters and attention to human emotion and experience; life as a series of reactions to commonplace situations. Everything is more complicated than it seems. This is apparent in his second novel, Flesh and Blood. He chronicles generations of the Stassos family, each chapter a year, but focuses like a selective memory on specific important moments. The beauty of his writing is his characters' weaknesses, their flaws and frustrations. The difficulties of family life down the line are varied but inexplicably identical at heart; selfishness and infidelity are human and difficult to resist. Cunningham captures these, as well as a host of smaller trials, each one a personal struggle. This theme is saddening, but reassuring in its familiarity. Everyone, at some point, is forced to create a facade of someone who is OK. This is a story of those who live behind that facade.