
Cunningham was in conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue at The White Hart Inn.
Photo by Alexander Wilburn
In Michael Cunningham’s new novel “Day,” which he discussed with WAMC’s “The Book Show” host Joe Donahue at The White Hart Inn in Salisbury, Conn., the night of Thursday, Nov. 30, a New York family faces changes over the course of three years.
Like his 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Hours,” Cunningham’s first novel in a decade is a triptych, told in three parts. The story begins on the morning of April 5, 2019, moves forward to the afternoon of April 5, 2020, and concludes on the evening of April 5, 2021.
“There’s the Holy Trinity, the three-act play. We are consistently drawn to the number three,” Cunningham told Donahue. “Any two beings, objects, can only be in proximity to one another. You see this napkin…” he held up his cocktail napkin and water glass to demonstrate his point. “You can always draw a straight line between the napkin and the glass. If you add a third element, endless permutations are possible. At the subatomic level, an atom of hydrogen, a nucleus with one electron, behaves entirely predictably. An atom of something like helium, an atom with two electrons — it’s impossible to tell how it will behave. When two storm systems are in proximity, they just go on, side by side. When the third one joins, it’s a hurricane.”
In addition to the novel’s three acts, the story centers on three adults cohabitating in a Brooklyn brownstone: former high school golden boy Dan, now married to his wife, Isabel, as well as Isabel’s younger brother Robbie, who moves in with the pair, often acting as a third, or even primary parent to the couple’s two children. Cunningham described the unconventional family unit as “Not quite good enough to be good, but not quite bad enough to dissolve… Dan and Isabel are screwing the kids up and are helpless in the face of it. The marriage is fraying, and they’re doing the best they can, but they are complicit in the novel. They are watching in horror as their inability to continue loving each other harms their children.”
Robbie’s presence further strains the relationship, as a triangle of affection disrupts the status quo of the cozy brownstone. “Dan and Isabel are each, in their own way, in love with Robbie,” said Cunningham. “Dan flirts with Robbie with a clear understanding that Robbie’s not going to make a move or anything. So it’s this atmosphere in which Dan, for complicated reasons, feels free to be flirtatious with Robbie. One of my favorite quotes is from Oscar Wilde, who said, ‘Everything in the world is really about sex except sex. Sex is really about power.’”
Though COVID-19 and the pandemic are never named directly, the isolation created for New Yorkers forced to remain in their homes weighs heavily on the middle section of the novel, set in April 2020. Cunningham said, while he wanted to avoid the trappings of the post-COVID novel, he was keenly interested in the early responses to the crisis, the fastidious washing of groceries, the loneliness and the paranoia. He felt a contemporary novel set in New York couldn’t overlook the emotional toll of the outbreak. “I didn’t want to write a pandemic novel, yet it would have felt like setting a novel in London during World War II without mentioning the Blitz.”
Besides attending The White Hart event, sponsored by Oblong Books in Millerton, N.Y., the New York City-based writer has another Connecticut connection — his 14-year teaching position at the English department of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. “The students are amazing. I teach a literature class that is really about craft. We do a lot of reading, but the implied question is: Virginia Woolf picks up the dictionary and finds ‘The Lighthouse’ in it, then Toni Morrison picks up the same dictionary and finds ‘Beloved.’ How do they do that?”
Bill Dinneen, left, and Ivan Kotchoubey, age 7, place a recently restored grave marker at the headstone of David Mallery, a Revolutionary War veteran, in Cornwall Sunday, May 25.
CORNWALL — On Sunday, May 25, Cornwall held a powerful ceremony to honor local veterans of the Revolutionary War.
At the cemetery on Route 4, about 25 attendees gathered to witness the placement of 10 grave markers. Bill Dinneen of the Cornwall Historical Society and Warren Stevens led the ceremony.
“These markers had gone missing from the cemetery, we don’t know when,” Dinneen said, showing six bronze and four cast iron markers that were recently restored and painted.
He explained the markers were found in bushes at the edge of the cemetery by Gene Swanson, of Washington Depot. It was unclear why they were removed from the gravestones, and Dinneen said there could be more elsewhere in the cemetery.
Bill Dinneen, left, and Warren Stevens explain the history, discovery and restoration process of the grave markers to attendees May 25.Photo by Riley Klein
“Today we have 10 markers. We have 32 names” of buried Revolutionary War veterans, Dinneen said. “The bronze markers will go to ranked soldiers,” such as sergeants, and “the cast ones will go to the oldest” of the infantry soldiers.
The restoration process included sandblasting, priming and painting. He was not certain, but Dinneen said the markers may have been originally placed by the government around World War I, at which time the original tombstones were replaced with harder stone.
Stevens explained the symbolism of the markers: A big star in the middle represents one of the colonies, 13 little stars represent all the colonies, the years 1775 and 1783 show the duration of the war, the words “A Patriot’s Grave” and “E Pluribus Unum. From many, there is one,” he said.
Susan Hellmann placed a bronze marker at the grave of her ancestor Noah Harrison. Photo by Riley Klein
Attendees, some of them descendants of the veterans, assisted in the placement of the markers.
Susan Hellmann, of Cornwall, said she would be placing a restored marker at the grave of “my great, great, great grandfather Noah Harrison” who served in the Revolution. “I feel like I’m going to cry. It’s just very touching, very powerful,” she said.
Dinneen read the rank, company and lifespan of each veteran as the markers were being placed, then Stevens fired a blast from his musket. When all the markers were set, the names of the other Revolutionary veterans buried in town were read aloud.
Warren Stevens fires his musket.Photo by Riley Klein
The ceremony was held as part of Memorial Day remembrances in Cornwall. It also marked the first official event in town for the nation’s 250th birthday with more to come.
As the occasion came to an end, a light rain began.
A bronze marker was placed at the grave of James Bierce, who lived to the age of 94 after serving in the Revolution with Captain Smith's Company. Bill Dinneen noted many of the Revolutionary War veterans buried in Cornwall lived to old ages. "The average age that these veterans died was 72 years old," he said.Photo by Riley Klein
LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School girls lacrosse won the 2025 Founders League championship with an 11-10 victory over Choate Rosemary Hall May 21.
The Bearcats battled back from behind by as many as four points.
MaryHelen McCooey scored the game-winning goal with about two minutes remaining.
The win marked the fourth consecutive Founders League title for Hotchkiss girls lacrosse.
The Marvelwood lacrosse team poses for a group photo May 20 after winning the HVAL title for the second year in row.
KENT — On Tuesday, May 20, Marvelwood School lacrosse defeated Woodhall School 15-9 in the Housatonic Valley Athletic League tournament final.
It was second straight HVAL championship win for the Pterodactyls and their fifth league title since 2018.
Marvelwood and Woodhall played twice this past season with Marvelwood winning both games. They met in the championship as the first and second ranked teams in the league.
In the pre-game huddle, Marvelwood Coach Zach Maizel pumped up his players and urged them to “be aggressive early.”
Eli Jamieson, No. 4, congratulates teammate C. Jones after a goal.Photo by Lans Christensen
Taking his message to heart, attackman Eli Jamieson scored in the first minute of game play. He scored twice more in the first period, which ended with Marvelwood ahead 6-3.
Woodhall played aggressively and stayed on the attack, but the first half ended 9-4 in favor of Marvelwood.
Jamieson was the key player on the Marvelwood squad, and he scored twice more in the final period to maintain the Pterodactyls’ lead.
Woodhall fought hard and possessed control for most of the final period, scoring five goals but falling to a final 15-9 Marvelwood victory.
HVRHS sophomore Ryan Segalla went three-for-three May 17 with Berkshire League gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m races. He was also on the gold-winning 4x400m relay team.
Berkshire League track and field wrapped up a season of competition with the league finals in Litchfield May 17. The BL festival followed with decathlon, heptathlon, steeplechase and hammer in Falls Village May 20 and Thomaston May 21.
The events included athletes from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Gilbert School, Lakeview High School, Nonnewaug High School, Northwestern Regional High School, Shepaug Valley High School, Terryville High School and Thomaston High School.
In the gold medal tally, Nonnewaug led with 12 golds, Housatonic won 10, Northwestern won six, Thomaston won six, Lakeview won five and Shepaug won three.
For Housatonic, Senior Mia Dodge won the girls 300m hurdles.
Mia DodgePhoto by Riley Klein
Sophomore Ryan Segalla won the boys 100m, 200m and 400m races.
Senior Kyle McCarron won the boys 800m and 1600m races.
The boys 4x400m relay team of Anthony Labbadia, Patrick Money, Kyle McCarron and Ryan Segalla won gold.
Junior Anthony Labbadia won the boys triple jump by a margin of more than three feet. He also earned second place in the boys 400m race.
Senior Patrick Money won the decathlon.
Senior Gabi Titone won the steeplechase. Junior Olivia Brooks took bronze.
The girls 4x400m relay team of Mckenzie Lotz, Harper Howe, Mia Dodge and Maddy Johnson took silver. The same team took bronze in the 4x100m relay.
Harper Howe took silver in the girls 400m race.
Gabi Titone took silver in the girls 800m race.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class S state track and field meet will be held in New Britain on June 2.
Patrick Money
Photo by Riley Klein