Thalia Book Club: Specimen Days with author Michael Cunningham

I’ll admit: I approached this expecting the usual author-event fluff—anecdotes about research, maybe a reading, a few softball questions. Instead, *Thalia Book Club: Specimen Days* delivers something rarer: a conversation that *challenges* the author as much as it celebrates him. D’Erasmo, thankfully, isn’t here to lob compliments. When Cunningham describes his novel’s three interconnected stories as a ‘failed experiment,’ she pushes back—*why* failed? What did he learn? His answers are revealing, especially when he confesses to ‘cheating’ Whitman’s poetry in the first draft, only to later confront its ‘unruly music’ head-on. That kind of honesty is catnip for anyone who’s ever stared down a blank page. The live recording adds a layer of texture missing from studio-produced interviews. You hear the audience’s murmurs of recognition when Cunningham admits to stealing from his own life (the 9/11-inspired section ‘wasn’t catharsis—it was theft’), and D’Erasmo’s laughter when he calls his middle section ‘a noir with a poet’s sensibility.’ My only gripe? The audio levels occasionally dip when audience members ask questions, forcing me to crank the volume. And at 81 minutes, it’s tight—just as Cunningham starts unpacking his ‘catastrophic’ first attempt at the Whitman voice, the conversation wraps. Still, the brevity works in its favor: no fat, just the good stuff. If you’ve ever wondered how a writer turns historical reverence into something urgent and strange, this is your audiobook. Just don’t expect neat answers—Cunningham’s too interesting for those.