Lost Son - Hardcover

Cunningham, M Allen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1932961348 ISBN 13: 9781932961348

Publisher: Unbridled Books, 2007

Synopsis

Spanning western Europe from 1875 to 1917 and presenting a gothic historical Paris that subverts our old assumptions regarding the City of Light, M. Allen Cunningham’s new novel brings a brooding atmosphere and human complexity to an intimate and imaginative portrait of one of the most uniquely sensitive artists of his time, a poet whose odd childhood and difficult early life will both fascinate and perhaps help explain his determination to stay true to his artistic vision at almost any cost. Here is Rainer Maria Rilke in the grip of his greatest artistic struggle: life itself.

Rilke’s gripping emotional drama as child, lover, husband, father, protégé, misfit soldier, and wanderer is framed by a haunted young figure, a researcher who, a century later, feels compelled to trace Rilke’s itinerant footsteps and those of Rilke’s fictional alter ego, the bewitched poet Malte Laurids Brigge. The result is an exploration of the forever imperfect loyalties we face in work and life, the seemingly immeasurable distances that can separate life and art, and the generational tensions between masters and admirers.

About this title

Reviews

Cunningham follows The Green Age of Asher Witherow (2004) with a dense novelization of the life of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. An account of Rilke's baptism gives over to a chronicle of his time in Paris, where he ruminates on life and befriends sculptor Auguste Rodin. From Rodin's residence, the narrative episodically follows Rilke from his days as a sickly military cadet and his meeting the writer Lou Andreas-Salome—his muse with whom he travels widely—to an interlude with Lord Chamberlain's skeleton in a crypt and eventually to the double heartbreak of Rilke's father's death and his final parting with Rodin, which inspires the poet to wall himself away behind his writer's desk. Cunningham is a talented writer, although unwelcome shifts into second-person and passages rife with adjective abuse mar this ambitious undertaking. (June)
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Technique remains popular in historical fiction. Rather than insert imaginary characters in historical settings where they interact with real historical figures, novelists are creating fictional biographies of real people. This can be a tricky approach because it mixes fact and fiction even more than usual for the genre. The approach can be particularly tricky when the subject is himself a writer. Should the fictional writer talk like the historical writer's writings? One of the ways this fictionalized biography of poet Rainer Maria Rilke attempts to overcome the problem is by mixing styles. The novel is a mix of first-, third-, and even second-person narration, as well as some of Rilke's actual writings. The result is itself mixed. Some passages are lyrical and moving; others seem unnecessarily dense. Fans of Rilke will be curious about this take on his life, but those not already interested are unlikely to find this a compelling starting point. Marta Segal
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Edition details

• Publisher: Unbridled Books
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1932961348
• ISBN 13: 9781932961348
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480