Great Expectations, Vinson Cunningham
“Cunningham’s real gift lies in his astute attention to detail and ability to express meaning while saying very little, sometimes even speaking through what remains unsaid.”
In Great Expectations, we follow David, a brilliant yet slightly unmoored young father and college dropout as he becomes rapidly swept up in Obama’s first presidential campaign. The novel tells the story of how David’s path intertwines with the ‘Candidate’ – as he is known throughout the novel – detailing the effect of a personal life colliding with history in the making.
David’s new role unearths questions about relationships between race, identity, religion and fatherhood, which, despite always being present for him, become more immediate as they are thrust under a political spotlight. David is partially drawn to the campaign in the hope of finding answers, as Cunningham writes, ‘I was less interested in the campaign’s plot than in how I was supposed to interpret it’.
In this way, the novel seems poised to reveal significant insights into how we navigate life, which may disappoint readers as that does not occur – at least in the way we expect. However, Cunningham’s real gift lies in his astute attention to detail and ability to express meaning while saying very little, sometimes even speaking through what remains unsaid.
Great Expectations demands the close attention of the reader, as the heart of the novel is glimpsed through seemingly insignificant observations and details that are so small you’d be forgiven to initially think of them as afterthoughts. In Great Expectations, Cunningham teaches us that, sometimes, we exist most fully in the space in between life’s great events, which history simply does not capture. It is these quiet moments that have the greatest impact to carry us through life.
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