Right now, I’m rereading Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days, one of my favorite books, because it is full of tenderness for human beings. The novel is honest about the characters’ flaws, cruelties, and deceptions, but Cunningham is also unafraid to focus on showing what is possible in our capacities for love and sacrifice. The very best way to read this book is not to look at the flap copy or reviews or anything else that will give away its project. I mean, you can of course. It is still pure delight after multiple rereadings. But I’m not going to be the culprit in spoiling Cunningham’s delicious surprises. So all I’ll say is that it’s three storylines, not intertwined as in its predecessor The Hours, but connected very differently.