General Fiction
Day.
By Michael Cunningham.
Nov. 2023. 288p. Random, $28 (9780399591341); e-book (9780399591358).
Ordinarily, spring brings a measure of hope. But by focusing on one spring day, April 5, in each of the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, Cunningham (A Wild Swan and Other Tales, 2015) sets the stage for painful irony as his characters are wrung dry as they make it through one of the defining experiences of our lives, the COVID-19 pandemic. In this stunning novel, the pandemic is never mentioned by name, yet its shattering fallout deeply molds everyone’s lives. Even in 2019, Isabel and Dan’s marriage is on the rocks. As mother to sensitive Violet and her older brother, Nathan, Isabel already bears the brunt of the family’s emotional labor, a situation that worsens during quarantine.…
