A Home at the End of the World

     Michael Cunningham’s A Home at the End of the World is a wonderful book. It has all the elements of a great contemporary novel. Clear, precise writing, characters that feel alive, and a plot that drives you forward deeper into the book until without realizing it you’re out the other end. The author of The Hours has consistently wowed readers with his visually sensuous writing and daring plots and characters. A Home at the End of the World follows three odd balls as they live together and eventually fall in love with each other. The book then determines to redefine the notion of "family".

Buy the Book

     Jonathan is an awkward little boy who plays with dolls instead of baseballs. Bobby witnesses the death of his only sibling, older brother Carlton, and it significantly affects him and his parents. Bobby meets Jonathan at school and they become best friends. They listen to records (the book opens when the boys are young in the early 1960s), smoke pot, drop acid, and do basically everything together. Eventually they begin experimenting with each other sexually. Cunningham employs a multi-narrator approach to the story. Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view. Jonathan and Bobby tell most of the story but Jonathan’s mother Alice also provides some narration in a few chapters. Eventually the boys go their own ways and meet up again in New York where Jonathan invites Bobby to come live with him and his roommate Clare. Clare then becomes the forth narrator. She’s a quirky woman in her 30s (the boys are in their 20s at this point) with multi-colored hair and a trust fund. Eventually they all fall in love with each other and decide to have a baby together. The baby would essentially have two fathers and one mother. Like I said, the definition of family comes into question, but in an intriguing way. 

It’s a very compelling book and told so well by Cunningham. His novels should be taught a hundred years from now in writing classes like Fitzgerald is today. It’s truly that good.

See the Movie

     The movie was released a few years after The Hours swept the Oscars. It’s obvious they were attempting to build off that film’s warm reception but it didn’t work out that way. The film feels thrown together last minute. There’s no style or substance to speak of. It’s basically a greatest hits version of the novel: all the big key moments are there but none of the connecting tissue that provide the bridges between these moments. There is basically zero character development. It’s tough to blame the filmmakers because the book seems like you couldn't make a good movie out of it. It’s hard enough to make a good movie out a first person narrative, never mind four! And the odd thing is that Cunningham wrote the screenplay. Another problem is that it’s too short. It’s a 350 page book and the movie is only 90 minutes. Even the star-studded cast (Colin Farrel, Sissy Spacek, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts) doesn't add anything to the rushed pace of the film. The only redeemable quality of the film is the excellent sixties soundtrack. All the right songs play at all the right moments. On all other accounts, the film fails. A Home at the End of the World is 100% worth your time and high up in Cunningham’s bibliography but the movie is just bad. It’s an afterthought. Read the book, don’t even bother with the movie.