Michael Cunningham is an American writer and screenwriter, born November 6, 1952 in Cincinnati.
After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in English literature, he then continued his studies in Iowa and began publishing his first stories during the same period.
His passion for literature, especially the works of the English writer Virginia Woolf, is clearly felt in his most famous novel Watchwhich, among other things, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. In Italy the work was published by a publishing house Ship of Theseus.
It was taken from this work, the most famous of Michael Cunningham’s works. movie Watch in 2002 Directed by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep.
Michael Cunningham’s watch, plot
We follow three parallel stories involving three women who live in very different places and eras, but communicate silently across the insurmountable barriers of time and space.
All their stories take place on the same day, within a few hours, but they contain the whole meaning of their lives.
All three main characters have some connection to the novel. Mrs DallowayEnglish writer Virginia Woolf.
One of the main characters, unsurprisingly, is Wulf herself., and we, the readers, follow her through the defining moments of her life, the ones that led her to decide to take her own life. Her day begins the very day the author begins writing. Mrs Dalloway.
The second main character of Michael Cunningham’s work is a woman named Laura Brown, fifties housewife.
We follow Laura on her husband’s birthday. When she fails to bake a birthday cake for him, she finds herself feeling worthless and inconsolable, so she begins to consider committing suicide.
So she heads to the motel after dropping her son off at a friend’s house, taking something to read with her. Mrs Dalloway, a book that would give her a new perspective on life and allow her to want something more than being nothing more than a wife and mother.
Finally we follow life Clarissa Vaughna resident of New York, nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway since college because of her resemblance to the heroine of Wolfe’s novel.
Clarissa’s day begins as serenely as Mrs. Dalloway’s. he goes to buy flowers for a party, but which ends in a completely opposite, tragic way.
In this novel there is a continuous attempt penetrate into the dimension of celebration and joywhich, however, is never specifically realized for any of the characters in the work.
Michael Cunningham presents us with a disconcerting perspective: “Enough is enough” a few hours of our lives to change something, to overthrow our beliefs and our perception of things.
Image source: La Nave di Teseo publishing house.
