The average user rating for this Book is 6.6 out of 10 (based on 11 Votes).
Jake S gave it a0: Boring and a waste of time to read!
Melissa J gave it a9: Beautiful prose and characters that make you ache. Cunningham makes every line seem vivid and real. My favorite was "In the Machine," and I connected with the characters (save a slightly cliche Luke) of the last novella, but the coarse Cat of "The Children's Crusade" left me cold, and I found myself confused by the child terrorist theme. But overall, it's a wonderful book that stays with you and makes you think. Beautifully done.
Ben W gave it an8: The first section was OK, the second was brilliant, and the third was fine, but read more like he was trying to channel Margaret Atwood. Sadly, he wasn't too successful. Still, he's got a great knack for writing, and it's an enjoyable read throughout.
Danny W gave it a10: Mad good
Andy Q gave it a9: I love Cunningham's writing. I read one sentence and want to read the next. But here, he leads us through the stories with other temptations - the style of a detective thriller or a sci-fi book - the repeated themes and images. I loved it, and also found the lines of Whitman beautiful - tying together the stories with a vision of community and humanity and nature. So, it's not been as well received as the Pulitzer winning "The Hours". It's still a top rate work by an amazing writer.
Erich E gave it a2: This is really an atrocious book with a glimmer of style and failed attempt at depth. The first two parts were vaguely interesting, though they amounted to very little in their attempts to deal with poetry, love, factory labor, race, class, terrorism, Manhattan geography, transcendentalism, forensic psychology, death and any number of other subjects. I stopped reading the third part after about 2 pages. I won't mention why because I don't want to spoil anything for anybody foolish enough to read this book, but I frankly have no idea how it even got published.
Joshua B gave it a10: Quite wonderful...lyrical and touching.
sean d gave it a5: the whitman motif seems forced and does not seem part of the narrative. it could have been asimov or singer or plath- it does not seem to matter. cunningham is still someone i want to bump into at a pub, but the beauty of 'a home at the end of the world' and the technical mastery of the 'the hours' are both missing in specimen days
Russell B gave it a6: A beautifully flawed experiment. The first two stories were very engaging and surprising in the direction they took. The third story did not work as a sci-fi story for me. But once I got half-way through it I found it to be engaging. I was disappointed, however that the narratives nor the writing itself did not envoke Whitman - it was what I was hoping for.
bob k gave it a6: Beautiful writing, obvious talent, but forced storytelling and subject matter/narrative often bordering on the childish. Overall a prettyawkward, immature attempt from a very good artist who seems to have missed the mark. Read the NYT book review for a more thorough description of what went wrong.
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