BAM Book Night: Fairy tales for grownups are Michael Cunningham’s next offering
Brooklyn BookBeat
Michael Cunningham, world-renowned novelist, never dreamed of growing up to be a writer. “I was much more visual…I thought I would be a painter,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Hours” revealed to an audience Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). But to the fortune of his fans, Cunningham took a writing class in college and soon knew he’d be trading in his paintbrush for a pen. “I understood almost immediately that the fundamental [essence of effective writing] — can you simulate life using ink, paper and the words in the dictionary — was endlessly fascinating to me.”
Cunningham is one of several notable authors featured this season as part of Eat, Drink & Be Literary — a popular BAM series, presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation — which this year entered its second decade of readings and discussions, preceded by dinner in the BAMCafé. Wednesday’s audience enjoyed a buffet meal catered by Great Performances and a steady supply of wine, courtesy of Seghesio Family Vineyards and Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg.
Cunningham recently published “The Snow Queen,” a novel about three characters who live together in Bushwick but follow decidedly different paths. On Wednesday, he expressed interest in the borough not just as a book setting, but also as a home for himself. “I live in Manhattan, but I’m determined to move to Brooklyn,” Cunningham revealed to this writer following the event.
Rather than focus on his past work, Cunningham shared something new with the audience, reading a section titled “Poison” from a book of fairy tales that Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish next November. The crowd watched in awe as Cunningham — whose performance of the text suggested yet another potential career path in acting — revealed a modern, even raunchy take on fairy tales, filled with edgy, relatable dialogue between a couple.