Morning, Noon and Night

As an aging hipster and middle-aged mother of a young child I could easily identify with the subject of this book, which is, roughly, about settling down to the family life and enjoying its blessings despite all expections. But more than that, I was moved by the grace, directness and humor of the writing. Gray's unique sensibility is so disarmingly present in this short meditation that our restrospective awareness of his death makes the reading quite painful. Still, a wonderful little package of feeling and intelligence that deftly explores the ambivalent joys of belonging to family.

One sentence of this monologue might describe Gray himself--"a different kind of show." Having seen him perform this monologue, I can't read this piece without imagining his voice behind it and mourning his suicide. Reading it, however, I'm curious what writing had to do with Gray's effectiveness. Homemade or homespun, Gray's writing is full of ellipsis, repetition, and those sort of "A equals B equals C" moments that could easily be cleaned up and cleared up. However, a good part of its immediacy rises from its seeming in-creation rather than created. A steady stream of wonder courses through wording that--I'm assuming--was deliberately crafted to be appropriately imperfect. Maybe I'm prejudiced by having heard Gray and by my grief--which persists--but his unpolished prose throws more crafted work into an odd perspective. At one moment in this piece, Gray describes how seeing street entertainment on the way to David Copperfield made the master magician appear pure artifice. For me, that's what Gray does--he shows the joys of real and messy creativity.

This is the most recent of Spalding Gray's monologues and as much as I love his work if he ends his autobiographical pieces here I would be happy, there's a feeling of closure and joy to this work.If you've read (or seen or listened to) much of his work and have warmed to Mr Gray this will delight you and make you feel very happy for the man - he's finally laid many demons to rest.After the anxieties of Monster in a Box and Gray's Anatomy this finds Gray much more relaxed and surprisingly content. Having to form a family due to a surprise conception with a lover (see It's a Slippery Slope) Gray has had forced upon him one of his major fears, children of his own.But the converse of "you better be careful what you wish for..." seems to be true for Gray. It tells the story of one day in his relatively new family's life, also flashing back to the birth of his second son during a torrential storm, and finally Gray is too busy to obsess about - well about anything he wants to obssess about - he can now see the world afresh through his baby son Theo's eyes.Also, the conversations with his nine-year-old son are hysterical and portray a bonded, wonderfully balanced relationship.A tale of leap-frogging the mid-life crisis and finding contentment where there was once fear. A true delight - but only read it after you've read more of his previous work - it'll be worth the wait.

Mr Gray has discovered the sublime terrors of family. This is a masterful exposition of the feelings one developes at fatherhood. Beautifully done!

the other reviews here are from mags and such. this review is by a big fan of spalding. yes, if you are looking for the absolute hilarity of swimming, this is different. yet, it is a work of brilliance. spalding is god... a work of heart... and besides now i don't have to cycle around bar harbor... if you are a fan of spald as well, please email me at [email protected]