I am in love with this book. I can relate to all three characters in some capacity (mostly with Bobby). I just knew from the first page that this book will be my favorite book in 2019. Even though it's February, I'm sure of it. ( )

Reason read: tbr takedown, Reading 1001
This was a book published in 1990 and is a story about two boys who are friends; Jonathan and Bobby. The setting is the 60s, 70s, and 80s. There is sex and drugs. Other characters are Alice, Jonathan's mother and Clare, Jonathan's friend. I can't say I was a fan because I don't like sexual details in books. The last part is the best part of the book. I thought the first part was the weakest. The Hours was a better book. ( )

Not really a review.

This book was picked for me in a challenge. I began to read, got about 15% in, but didn't finish - too many things started happening all at once, GRamazon one of them (what a waste of time, but it totally sucked me in) However I did find time to watch a movie based on the book. Not sure if I can write a full-blown book review based on a movie, but I would want to write something when I put my thoughts together, hopefully within a day or two.

All I have to say right now that it's great story, I would watch the movie again and will definitely finish the book.

5 stars for the movie.

This is not my usual type of book to read.. I am more inclined toward historical fiction, true crime, Stephen King inspired horror/sci-fi, history and biographies, but I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to try a more contemporary read.
Heart-warming and heart- breaking are the two best descriptions of this book. I gave it 4 stars. Each chapter is narrated by a different character. Some chapters are better than others, some characters are better developed than others. Also, my main grievance is that one main character, Ned, is silent. I would like to hear his voice in the story because he was so influential on the character of Alice, Jonathan and Bobby.
Highly recommended for the beautiful writing alone! It was so readable! But the story was engaging from start to finish.
One thing I need to comment on is the title. In the book "Lady Chatterley's Lover" which I read last month, when the two lovers were contemplating running away they lamented that "there is no end of the earth" in the modern age. Little did they know that upstate New York could be considered, at the end of the 20th century as the "End of the World". ( )

This story would have been much better if each character was actually their own narrator. Each character told things from their own view point but there was no differentiation in tone, language or anything to make the characters unique. I often had to go back to the beginning of the chapter because i forgot who's perspective i was reading from.

I have no problems with bittersweet stories or endings, but it seemed like no one in this story was EVER happy and it made this book almost a chore to get through because there were no highs to offset the lows, or to make the lows matter. ( )

I love Michael Cunningham. [b:The Hours|11899|The Hours|Michael Cunningham|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327871525s/11899.jpg|2245431] is one of my most beloved novels. However, I loathed this book. There wasn't a single likable character and the story-line was beyond boring. I feel betrayed... I wanted to love this book but I found it impossible to enjoy. ( )

Mi è piaciuto molto questo romanzo. È stata una bella scoperta quella della scrittura di Cunningham, una penna a mio avviso molto raffinata che si cimenta con un racconto a quattro voci della storia di Jonathan e Benny, amici di infanzia prima e compagni di vita poi. L'autore affronta temi difficili (l'amore, l'amicizia, la famiglia, l'omosessualità, la malattia) con grande delicatezza, ricamando le parole intorno ai fatti, sempre convincente senza risultare banale, prolisso o indigesto. I personaggi, benché "strani", sono tutti assolutamente credibili e perfettamente calati nel ruolo che lo scrittore attribuisce loro. Fanno scelte che, per quanto strane od opinabili, risultano realistiche proprio per la caratterizzazione precisa dei personaggi stessi. Nella seconda metà del libro si avverte forse un po' di stanchezza (sporadici momenti di noia e una certa omogeneizzazione delle quattro voci narranti), che però nulla toglie alla straordinarietà di questo romanzo. ( )

This is the story of a friendship. Bobby and Jonathan meet in junior high and experiment with all things adult together. As they grow into adulthood, they form an ersatz family with Clare, an older woman, and the daughter she has with Bobby, but they all are her parents. On the fringe of the family is Erich, Jonathan's lover.
I don't know where to begin describing how much I liked this book. The writing is terrific-simple and eloquent. The characters are full of flaws-raw and realistic. Description of time and place, appearances, everything is well done. It's not wrapped up in a bow at the end, but that's in its favor. The subject matter may not be for everyone, as it addresses unconventional family, homosexuality and AIDS, but it's tastefully done. Highly recommended!
While reading this, my experience was enhanced by listening to classic rock from the 60s and 70s, and then CBGB punk rock artists like the Talking Heads, Ramones and Blondie. ( )

Bobby and Jonathon meet each other when they start seventh grade and quickly become inseperable, which is good for them because neither of these boys would survive Cleveland alone given their quirks. As they grow up however, Jon becomes angry and withdrawn, and as soon as he is able leaves Cleveland for New York City. Bobby, however, settles into a typical Cleveland life, and even moves in with Jon's parents. But when the time comes, he too moves on to the bright lights of New York, and the two boys who had grown distant, immediately fall in love all over again.

This is a hard book to describe. As I read it, I kept thinking of three works - tense, bleak, and sparse. Mr. Cunningham is definitely a gifted author. I really connected with Bobby and Jon, despite having nothing in common with either boy. He took an unlikely story and made me want to read it. Yet, I'm not sure I fully grasped all the nuances of the story either. I am just not the type of person who is going to understand what it is like growing up gay or completely disconnected from the rest of the world. I am not the type of person who is going to fall so completely in love with another that I cannot seperate my identity from theirs. So while I was, improbably able to connect with the characters, I was able to do so as if they were friends of mine, and not able to fully feel everything they were feeling. It was a good novel, I thoroughly liked it and am glad it was selected by my book club, even though I don't understand exactly why it selected as part of the 1001 Books You Must Read, which was the other reason I wanted to read this book. ( )

5218. A Home at the End of the World, by Michael Cunningham (read 11 Nov 2014) I read this because it is No. 86 on Entertainment Weekly's 2013 list of the '100 Best Novels Ever' and the reading of it brings to 80 the number of novels on that list I have read. The book begins with an account of weird boys in Cleveland, Jonathan and Bobbie, who have parents not overly addicted to discipline and who eventually end up in New York living with Clare, who also has a life not conspicuous for moral behavior. Clare seduces Bobbie and eventually has a child, Rebecca, with him which Jonathan considers himself as one ot the child's three parents. None of the main characters have any adherence to morality and Jonathan's male lover, Erich, apparently has AIDS, though the disease is not named. There is little good I can say for the characters in the book. ( )

One of the most powerful openings to a novel I have ever read. The writing is pitch perfect throughout. However--big however--the middle dragged and I found the ending sentimental. Ultimately, despite all the excellent qualities in this novel, I was disappointed. ( )

"You don't necessarily meet a lot of people in this world."

This is the first of Michael Cunningham's books I've read, but I will be reading all of them. He just flat gets it. By the time I was halfway through, I more or less disliked two of the three main characters, but I wasn't tired of reading about them. I wanted to figure them out. I wanted to like them and if I didn't, I wanted to understand why.

This is one of those books that you read a sentence or a paragraph or a scene and it hits you deep down, sometimes in the places where you're most insecure. (If you're someone who underlines quotations, get new pencils. Get a *box* of pencils.) There were times when I was sad or upset about something and would read another book instead because I didn't want to feel everything that this one brought up.

I'm making this book sound like a big downer. It isn't. It's exhilarating, like all the best books, because it tells you what you know is true and then makes you look at it all again. ( )

i border very close to having absolutely loved this book. the writing is exquisite, and the way he shows this idea of waiting to live your life - it just felt so brutally honest and raw. how what feel like small tragedies in the moment - things not said, the stuff you think you'll one day do or say - end up shaping a life and can even be the main tragedy in it. and i loved, really loved, the way bobby frames things and gives us insight into the rest of the book at the very end. a beautiful wrap-up.

of the 3 main characters, i really only liked one of them, but only really disliked one of them as well. i guess it's more that i couldn't really relate at all to one of them, the woman, and just felt more connected to the two men, especially bobby. still, that mattered not a bit to how much i enjoyed this book.

had it not been for the holidays, i would never have taken so long to have read it. i'm too slow a reader to be able to read a book like this in one sitting, but i would really have loved to have been able to. i never wanted to put it down.

between a mother and her adolescent son:
"'Good night,' he said.
'Good night. Sleep well.'
Still I lingered. I could not leave off looking at him, even if he resented me for it. If I'd had the courage I'd have said to him, 'Don't do it. Please don't start hating me. You can have the world without shutting me out of your life.'
I walked quietly from the room, as full of him as I had been when I was pregnant."

"...at a theater where a mouse ran across our feet, quick and feathery as a bad impulse." ( )

I was disappointed with Michael Cunningham's "A Home at the End of the World." That's not to say it's a bad book... it isn't.... but I was expecting more from it. There just wasn't anything particularly special or interesting about it to set it apart. I'm surprised that it was included on a version of the 1,001 books to read before you die list.

The story, told from alternating points of view, mainly follows the lives of Bobby and Jonathan, who slip into a complex love triangle. Jonathan is gay, Bobby is bisexual and their lives are messy and complicated.

The story is well-paced though a bit predictable. I found the book to be "okay" but not particularly memorable or noteworthy. ( )

I'm on a Michael Cunningham kick - I read The Hours years ago and liked it, but not enough to seek out his other work. Then I listened to By Nightfall and loved it, so much so that I followed that one with this one, which is also very good. I love the richness and depth of the characters, how they're totally believable yet such strong individuals as to be not quite like anyone I've known. The audio version is read by multiple readers (the book is told from the rotating viewpoints of four characters) and it's very well done. ( )

Written as viewpoints rotate chapter by chapter with each of four major characters, this is a novel about relationships. It focusses on how they form, how we define family, sexuality and roles within them and it results in the decisions we make for ourselves as a result of them. That’s pretty much what I took from the book.

I found it intriguing to see the experimental family that forms as a result of each of the three main characters pursuing a quest for liberation within relationships. This ends, kind of predictably, in going not so well for a couple of them. But it does result in a family being created for those that either never had one or those that are emotionally estranged from them. For one character in particular, this is important as his life draws to a close.

On the whole, the characters were pretty complex and I appreciated this reminder of how difficult each of us is to pin down. I thought the novel was pretty honest for its look at what happens when we a self-sacrificing to the point of self-harm. Cunningham also seems to be truthful in depicting relationships that are messy despite their liberality.

I don’t think this is a vastly important book but it is a reasonable read and I enjoyed meeting the characters he created. ( )

Cunnimgham at his best: I found it very hard not to read the novel in one single day, it is warm and full of uplifting and intricate feelings.

I liked the novel, interesting characters. this is a novel that explores what makes a family. ( )

Like The Hours, this has some incredibly beautiful, amazingly poignant, and overwhelming sad bits. At first I wondered if I would get the various narrators' voices muddled (especially Bobby and Jonathan), but they quickly developed as separate entities in my reader's mind and I did not find myself wanting one perspective over another (even when Alice, Jonathan's mother, and Clare, joined the group) as often happens when a novel is told from more than one perspective. The insights on marriage, relationships, and how we create meaning in our lives are provocative and urge discussion, but more than anything I just want to know more about these characters; I don't want to leave them behind just because the story is over. ( )

This is typical first-novel stuff: a coming-of-age story about two boys—one homosexual, the other damaged by the violent death of his brother—who form a lifelong bond and even a family with a woman they both fall in love with.

Cunningham’s first novel doesn’t have the polish or complexity of The Hours or Specimen Days but is still very readable. The prose was very engaging, but the relationships didn’t come fully alive for me, a problem for a character-driven novel, and some of the situations seemed forced. So this early effort was just okay for me. ( )

A Home at the End of the World is Cunningham’s first novel. The characters are an interesting mix of oddballs and misfits who find solace in the eccentric life they build together. The book has a rotating narrative, moving mainly between Bobby, Jonathan and Claire. The two boys meet when they are young and form a friendship that proves pivotal in both of their lives.

Bobby’s world is filled with tragedies and he becomes attached to Jonathan’s family. As adults, the two boys reconnect in New York City where Jonathan lives with Claire, a bohemian older woman. Jonathan is gay, but the two have discussed raising a child together.

My favorite character in the story is Alice, Jonathan’s mother. In a couple small sections she tells the story from her point-of-view and I loved her voice. She a southern woman, stranded in a Midwestern suburb, trapped in the role of a homemaker. She’s watching her life pass her by, but isn’t sure how to go about changing it.

There’s no denying Cunningham’s skill as a writer. The sentences are rich and beautiful; his descriptions are lush without becoming flowery. My issue is with the characters and plot. We watch them grow, but not really change. They live a strange life that allows them to float through the years, never really maturing. I couldn’t connect with any of them and felt like they were all a bit too naïve or clueless to make it far in the real world.

I read The Hours when I was in college and absolutely loved it. Since then I haven’t been able to find another Cunningham book that I really enjoy. I couldn’t stand Specimen Days, and Land’s End was nothing special. After reading this one, I think I’m going to have to give up and assume that The Hours was a one-off for me and I’m just not a fan of the rest of his work. Skip this one and read The Hours, it’s wonderful.

“We become the stories we tell about ourselves.” ( )

a beautiful book

This is the first book I've read by Michael Cunningham, and I was just blown away. His sentences are amazing and his characters are heartbreakingly complicated and messed up. I didn't want the story to end; I didn't want to leave the characters alone for a second. I think I liked it too much to really be coherent or critical about why just yet, but it was wonderful and I can't recommend it strongly enough. ( )

This was beautifully written. Cunningham has a wonderful way with language. It's the story of two men, one gay and one not, who both love the same woman. The three of them move in together and decide to raise a baby as a family. Lots of good stuff here about the nature of love and relationships and how families work. One thing I took away from it, which may or may not have been the author's intent, is that you can spend you entire life trying to figure out who you are and how to be happy.

This book was nothing like I imagined. Somehow I’d gotten the idea it was a bit like some Australian TV-series I saw some of a couple of years ago, don’t remember the name, but it was about a family that moved around, something like that. Don’t remember it so clearly, but this book reminded me of it... until I started reading it.

Bobby and Jonathan, who both come from troubled families, become friends (and lovers, sort of) in high school. Then Jonathan moves on and makes a life for himself in New York living with his friend and platonic love, Clare. Bobby stays in Cleveland and lives with Jonathan’s parents. The boys seem split up, but when Jonathan’s parents have to move, Bobby comes to N.Y. to live with Jonathan and Clare. And the rest of the book is about the three of them, their relationship and lives together. The story is told by multiple narrators: Bobby, Jonathan, Alice (Jonathan’s mom) and Clare, and though it often bothers me (it does a little bit this time too) it works quite well in this novel.

I am rather ambivalent about this book. I don’t like the characters. Well, I kind of like Bobby, but then again, he’s just too far out, so all in all I don’t really like them! Yet there’s something so honest about them, which I like. For all of them (perhaps except Bobby) you can say, that they think a lot about their life, their future, their happiness, too much in my opinion. I get the urge to scream at them: THINK LESS, LIVE MORE!!! Often the book seemed so navel gazing, self-centered that I almost couldn’t have it. Nonetheless, all their thinking is part of what makes this book so interesting.

All in all I like the book. Even though I’m not sure how to feel about it, I really do like it and find it recommendable. ( )