Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown (Crown Journeys)
by Michael Cunningham
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael CunninghamEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-08-06
ISBN: 0609609076
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown (Crown Journeys)
Book Review: A Great Achievement
Summary: 5 Stars
In this little volume Cunningham is able to capture the essence of Provincetown which is no mean feat because it is probably the most idiosyncratic and elusive town to encapsulate in the United States. He uses poetic prose and quotes some poems in his search for evoking the essential nature of the place.
Before World War II my family brought me to the town on day trips. We would drive from Springfield, Mass. to Boston and then take the ferry across to this end-of-the world place. In 1962 I made my first visit as an adult and then became a very frequent visitor often staying for weeks at a time. Between 1970 and 1980 I owned a house and cottage there with a dear friend, and we rented out four units. The winters in P'Town are dreary and nasty, and I never spent a winter there, although I've been there every month of the year. In summers the 4,000 resident population swells to about 40,000.
By carefully selecting details and lifestyles, Cunningham is able to paint a picture of the sexual, artistic, literary, and social strands of this bohemian town. Gays and lesbians form an important element in the town. A great many famous writers and visual artists made the town their home. It has one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, and the main drag, Commercial Street goes on for three miles along the waterfront.
This book is a very personal account by a gay man. Because he is able to weave his own experiences into the narrative, the book becomes much more meaningful and a joy for P'Towners to read. People and places that I have saved and savored in my memory pop out as he tells this story. This book catches the look, the spirit, the personality, and the soul of America's most unique town, my beloved Provincetown. I too have spread the ashes of a loved one closeby the place where Cunningham scattered ashes of a close friend.
Summary of Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown (Crown Journeys)
In this celebration of one of America's oldest towns (incorporated in 1720), Michael Cunningham, author of the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize?winning The Hours, brings us Provincetown, one of the most idiosyncratic and extraordinary towns in the United States, perched on the sandy tip at the end of Cape Cod.Provincetown, eccentric, physically remote, and heartbreakingly beautiful, has been amenable and intriguing to outsiders for as long as it has existed. "It is the only small town I know of where those who live unconventionally seem to outnumber those who live within the prescribed bounds of home and licensed marriage, respectable job, and biological children," says Cunningham. "It is one of the places in the world you can disappear into. It is the Morocco of North America, the New Orleans of the north."
He first came to the place more than twenty years ago, falling in love with the haunted beauty of its seascape and the rambunctious charm of its denizens. Although Provincetown is primarily known as a summer mecca of stunning beaches, quirky shops, and wild nightlife, as well as a popular destination for gay men and lesbians, it is also a place of deep and enduring history, artistic and otherwise. Few towns have attracted such an impressive array of artists and writers?from Tennessee Williams to Eugene O'Neill, Mark Rothko to Robert Motherwell?who, like Cunningham, were attracted to this finger of land because it was . . . different, nonjudgmental, the perfect place to escape to; to be rescued, healed, reborn, or simply to live
in peace. As we follow Cunningham on his various excursions through Provincetown and its surrounding landscape, we are drawn into its history, its mysteries, its peculiarities?places you won't read about in any conventional travel guide.
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