A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham

Set in Ohio and New York in the 1970’s, two young teens form an unlikely friendship that eventually takes them down different paths but then reunites them to create a non traditional family.

Unfortunately, most of the characters were unlikable which made for difficult appreciation of the novel.

Bobby Morrow was, if not likable, then tolerable. Obsessed with music and not a very ambitious young man, the one thing he longed for was family. Losing his older brother, whom he idolized, followed by his mother’s suicide takes its toll and he gravitates to the Glover family to fill the familial void.

Friend, confidante and some time sexual partner to Bobby, Jonathan Glover never seemed to appreciate what he had. His cynicism and air of superiority kept most relationships at bay where he seemed to prefer them.

Jonathan’s New York roommate, Clare shares his cynical outlook of the world. When Bobby moves to New York, the three become a “family” with Clare playing the maternal role. When she becomes pregnant, they move to upstate New York to begin a new business and lifestyle. Clare’s selfishness, as predicted by Jonathan’s mother, eventually undoes the family dynamic.

Quotes:

We set my bags down, and stood through a moment of difficult silence. Over the years we’d lost our inevitability together; now we were like the relatives of two old friends who had died.

It was still the face of a man who believed human differences could be resolved by a pilgrimage to famous geological phenomena.

All mothers must experience such moments, when their grown children–who have seemed to depart irrevocably into their own personalities–suddenly reveal a strain of their father’s nature so pure and undiluted they might be the man himself, reborn, right down to the three-note cough that has punctuated the past forty-plus years.

Perhaps I’d travel to New Haven to meet with Mr. Cunningham. We could discuss our literary and musical interests and get into the craft of writing.

My rating for A Home at the End of the World  is a 6 out of 10.

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