Customer Reviews
Engrossing family saga - By: Benjamin, 13 Aug 2007 
Covering many years & concluding well in the future, this family saga centres on the lives of three children, including the son who is gay, & their parents a Greek immigrant & his Italian wife.
Of the children, Susan readily marries to escape he father; Billy goes to Harvard; & Zoë takes up a free lifestyle in New York. Each finds love in his or her own way, & 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 & very individual character, from the down to earth, physical, abusive & self made patriarch Constantine, his sensitive wife Mary, the rather prim Susan, level headed Billy who is gay & perhaps the most endearing member of the family, & Zoë who is into free love & drugs. The one outsider to the family who figures strongly in the story is Cassandra, Zoë's flamboyant transvestite & very caring friend, & an appealing individual.
Between them they face innumerable troubles including divorce, abuse, illness, discrimination, drugs, AIDS, adultery, suicide, death, & family rejection. But these troubles are tempered with the more positive, essentiallly the love that binds a family, & 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 & prove to be the true survivors.
Flesh & Blood is an engrossing family drama with vividly drawn & diverse characters, a very moving & ultimately heart warming story.
Wonderful read A Reader from East Yorks - By: Mr. G. Taylor Mrs Taylor, 23 Jul 2006 This is one of the best books I have ever read. I felt I was actuallly IN the family, part of them. Michael Cunningham writes with such marvellous insight into a famly's feelings, hopes & 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." - By: Mary Whipple, 11 Aug 2005 
An intense family drama which begins in 1935 & ends in 2035, the novel revolves around Constantine Stassos, a Greek who emigrates to the U.S. & eventuallly marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian girl who also wants to escape her home. He eventuallly fathers three children--Susan, who marries young to escape her father; Billy, who goes off to Harvard & an alternative lifestyle; & 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 & a form of escape.
Filled with passion, as each character tries to define his/her own life, often using love & sex as their springboards to new lives, the characters reflect the eras in which they live. This is both a strength & 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 & easy to predict.
The characters themselves are well developed, but though they alll possess unique qualities & 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 & mother & becomes frustrated. Susan, a brittle striver in a tepid marriage, has one perfect child. Billy is gay, & Zoe dabbles in drugs & free love. Constantine's grandchildren are a perfect preppie & an interracial child living in a single parent household.
The most vivid character in the novel ironicallly, is not a member of the family. S/he is Cassandra, Zoe's transvestite guardian angel, a character so vibrant & so full of life that she dominates the scenes in which she appears & 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 physicallly a male, is darkly hilarious, & 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, & 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, & the importance of memory enliven this generational saga. Written in beautiful prose & filled with perfect details, the novel revolves around honest characters expressing real emotion & learning real lessons. Mary Whipple
If you thought your family was dysfunctional, think again! - By: jpksan, 07 Sep 2003 In this novel from the author of 'The Hours', Cunningham deftly follows a family for a century through their growth (apart; toghether; individuallly; collectively).
A marvellous observation of the maze of relationships. At once comic & heart-rendingly moving.
Hard to put down - By: , 10 Feb 2002 After reading "Home at the End of the World" in Hungarian I quickly ordered Flesh & Blood (not yet available in Hungary) because I liked the book so much. Now, after reading Flesh & 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 & 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 & 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 & leads us through the lives of his three children & 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 & Stephen King.
