SPECIMEN DAYS was the title of Walt Whitman's autobiography, written in 1882. Michael Cunningham's work of fiction, bearing the same title, consists of three novellas set in Whitman's New York City, all of which evoke the poet in some way. "In the Machine," which takes place during Whitman's time, is about a boy named Lucas who is obsessed with both his dead brother's girlfriend and Whitman's poetry. "The Children's Crusade" is a contemporary thriller involving a group of suicide bombers--one of whom is named Luke--who are terrorizing Manhattan. "Like Beauty" is a sci-fi story about an alien and a teenage visionary (Luke again) who live in a post-apocalyptic New York plagued by reptilian alien refugees from another planet. Like his phenomenally successful THE HOURS, Cunningham's novel tells three very different but interconnected stories.
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- PublisherFARRAR STRAUS & @ GIROUX
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0374975388
- ISBN 13 9780374975388
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number2
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