a vision of old new york...in the future

Last night I finished reading Michael Cunningham's "Specimen Days". What an interesting book. It consists of three separate stories which share a few common elements, namely, the poetry of Walt Whitman, a white china bowl, and a similar grouping of characters who retain the same names in each of the stories. It all takes place in New York city, first during the industrial revolution, then at the present time, and then 150 years from now. It is this last story which struck me as the most interesting, though I admit to being a bit wary of it at first. New York City as we currently know it is called "Old New York", and is basically just a tourist attraction for those who want to see what the city was like years ago (meaning right now, and I think several decades past as well, if I remember correctly). A large part of the country has become barren, due to evacuations after a meltdown. A few places still have large populations. What made me wary about this particular section was that humans had made contact with another planet with life, some of who's population had been forced to live on Earth. At first I sort of thought that it wouldn't fit with the previous two parts of the story because of these aliens, I guess, but after I had read some of it it didn't seem like such an unrelated plotline. (I know this probably sounds a little disjointed, but I don't want to give too much away.) Anyway, it's a very interesting take on the future...not really the brightest picture, but interesting nonetheless. The other two sections were very good as well, but for me it's the fact that the three are all connected that I find to be one of the best things about his book. So...a very good read, and was one of the first books in a while that I seriously couldn't put down. In general: I love Michael Cunningham's writing style. Specifically: this book, I fell, is a real thought-provoker, not only about the future and why in this story it is the way it is, but also about the lives of those who worked in the factories during the industrial revolution, forensics and psychology (the end of that section, the present-day one, I thought was especially profound, and I didn't even see it coming), and of course, how three seemingly un-related stories are united by a poet, a bowl, and a set of similar characters.

Well. That was a very long-winded paragraph, wasn't it? lol I'll have more to write later. Time to get started with my day.