The Cosmology of Bing by Mitch Cullin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Similar to Disgrace Cullin also talks of a professor, an intellectual for whom life has passed him by. Only here, Cullin ends the round as a tale of self discovery for all those involved.
By not showing us the break but the result of the break, Cullin allows us to see how two estranged lovers come to heal by being there for each other in a way they could not find apart, but tried.
In a way, missing here, Cullin allows us to draw a connection to a mysterious “big bang” which is felt but not seen. I expected the end to be more dramatic than it was, but it still has its mode of satisfaction. In some sense, the character Bing is too weak to stand on his own; too uninteresting as half the narrative is shared with Nick. That makes the title a bit of a misnomer for me as a good part of the story doesn’t fall into focus as being about Bing; as Nick’s tale, being interesting, is still to a degree irrelevant.
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