Flesh and Blood

Covering many years and concluding well in the future, this family saga centres on the lives of three children, including the son who is gay, and their parents a Greek immigrant and his Italian wife.
Of the children, Susan readily marries to escape he father; Billy goes to Harvard; and Zoë takes up a free lifestyle in New York. Each finds love in his or her own way, and of course the problems that go with such. As the children in turn have children their lives become part of the saga. Each member of the family is a distinct and very individual character, from the down to earth, physical, abusive and self made patriarch Constantine, his sensitive wife Mary, the rather prim Susan, level headed Billy who is gay and perhaps the most endearing member of the family, and Zoë who is into free love and drugs. The one outsider to the family who figures strongly in the story is Cassandra, Zoë's flamboyant transvestite and very caring friend, and an appealing individual.
Between them they face innumerable troubles including divorce, abuse, illness, discrimination, drugs, AIDS, adultery, suicide, death, and family rejection. But these troubles are tempered with the more positive, essentially the love that binds a family, and the love that some find beyond the family, including gay love. As the saga draws to its conclusion way in the future it is the less conventional family members, those at times rejected, who come through with credit and prove to be the true survivors.
Flesh and Blood is an engrossing family drama with vividly drawn and diverse characters, a very moving and ultimately heart warming story.

Wonderful read A Reader from East Yorks (1/1 people found this helpful)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I felt I was actually IN the family, part of them. Michael Cunningham writes with such marvellous insight into a famly's feelings, hopes and disappointments. The characters are so believable, they could have been my own family. I can't wait to read the rest of his novels.

"A chaos of yearning...love...hunger...bottomless grief." (8/8 people found this helpful)

An intense family drama which begins in 1935 and ends in 2035, the novel revolves around Constantine Stassos, a Greek who emigrates to the U.S. and eventually marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian girl who also wants to escape her home. He eventually fathers three children--Susan, who marries young to escape her father; Billy, who goes off to Harvard and an alternative lifestyle; and Zoe, who leaves for a hippie life in New York. When the children end up as parents themselves, their children's lives are also traced, as they, too, look for independence and a form of escape.

Filled with passion, as each character tries to define his/her own life, often using love and sex as their springboards to new lives, the characters reflect the eras in which they live. This is both a strength and limitation in the novel: a wonderful sense of universality pervades the struggles of the characters through the various generations, but their specific struggles are typical of their periods and easy to predict.

The characters themselves are well developed, but though they all possess unique qualities and eccentricities, they are also examples of cultural stereotypes. Constantine is an up-by-the-bootstraps success as a developer, but he is less successful as a husband. Mary tries to be the perfect wife and mother and becomes frustrated. Susan, a brittle striver in a tepid marriage, has one perfect child. Billy is gay, and Zoe dabbles in drugs and free love. Constantine's grandchildren are a perfect preppie and an interracial child living in a single parent household.

The most vivid character in the novel ironically, is not a member of the family. S/he is Cassandra, Zoe's transvestite guardian angel, a character so vibrant and so full of life that she dominates the scenes in which she appears and is almost solely responsible for any humor in the novel. (A scene in which Mary has a phone conversation with her, not knowing she is physically a male, is darkly hilarious, and Mary's first meeting with her is unforgettable.)

As the characters face discrimination, an almost-incestuous relationship, gay initiation, drugs, AIDS, divorce, illness, suicide, unplanned pregnancy, family rejection, and death, they also discover the forces which bring families together. Even those who "escape" find themselves inevitably connected to their family past. The search for love, the need for independence, the enduring connections of family, and the importance of memory enliven this generational saga. Written in beautiful prose and filled with perfect details, the novel revolves around honest characters expressing real emotion and learning real lessons. Mary Whipple

If you thought your family was dysfunctional, think again! (2/2 people found this helpful)

In this novel from the author of 'The Hours', Cunningham deftly follows a family for a century through their growth (apart; toghether; individually; collectively).

A marvellous observation of the maze of relationships. At once comic and heart-rendingly moving.

Hard to put down (11/13 people found this helpful)

After reading "Home at the End of the World" in Hungarian I quickly ordered Flesh and Blood (not yet available in Hungary) because I liked the book so much. Now, after reading Flesh and Blood I have already ordered Hours. I think I will be sorry soon that Mr Cunningham have not written more novels so far. (As far as I know...)
I liked Flesh and Blood even better than Home at the End of the World. The problems of the characters are highly actual, the insight of the author into the minds of either a woman character or a man, either a child or an elderly person is deep and true. How do you know so well Mr Cunningham?!
This book told me a lot about people, about the truth of the poem of a big Hungarian poet :"The child I ever was is still alive...." . Although the characters are sometimes strange or antipathetical, you can easily identify with them, because they are deeply human.
The book begins with the childhood of the father and leads us through the lives of his three children and two grandchildren. Do not worry: you will not find boring details of family history, or never ending series of chronological events. You will read about the important episodes from special years or about just everyday scenes from the lives of the family members. The second half of the book is so exciting, I could hardly withstand the temptation to read the end in advance.
I recommend this book to everybody , who wants to read something between Dostojewski and Stephen King.

Michael Cunningham

Reader Reviews:

Engrossing family saga (1/1 people found this helpful)

Wonderful read A Reader from East Yorks (1/1 people found this helpful)

"A chaos of yearning...love...hunger...bottomless grief." (8/8 people found this helpful)

If you thought your family was dysfunctional, think again! (2/2 people found this helpful)

Hard to put down (11/13 people found this helpful)

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