Morning, Noon and Night (Paperback)

by Spalding Gray (Author) "I wake and look out the window, scanning the historic cemetery across the street..." (more)
Key Phrases: hand mower, historic cemetery, Sag Harbor, New York City, Long Island (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A portrait of the artist as bemused dad, this account of a day in the life of the Gray family is by turns funny, meditative and self-absorbed. Gray (Swimming to Cambodia, etc.) may say he is "really no good at making up stories," but he is brilliant at telling them. Parents will smile with recognition at his tales of sharing the bath with plastic action figures; of trying to control his anger at the children's rejection of a dinner lovingly prepared by his wife, Kathie, in favor of "Lunchables"; and at the stream of existential questions posed by his son, Forrest ("Dad, how do flies celebrate?"). With the birth of his second son, Theo, Gray's recollection of how he and his brothers treated their own father is sharpened, providing a frame of family history for his present encounters with parenthood. The 18th-century churchyard across from Gray's suburban Long Island home inspires his sometimes morbid imagination, but his frequent flights of fantasy are always brought down to earth by the real demands of young children or the common sense of the apparently endlessly patient Kathie. In his stepdaughter, Marissa, Gray seems to have met his match for self-dramatization: "We both thought that life was a rehearsal for the perfect story and the perfect audience." Gray's own words about a woman who exposes her toeless foot for alms on a New York subwayAthat her story "was no doubt partly an act, but was a good act and it deserved some money"Acould equally be applied to his own work. Agent, ICM. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Somewhere about the time Gray admits that he cried the first time he heard his son's schoolmates sing the Sag Harbor Elementary School Song you want to haul off and jack-slap the noted monologist upside the head and scream, "Hey, Spalding, bite me!" Gray has made a career of his droning, therapy-laden confessional soliloquies; this latest installment finds him trading his Manhattan loft for an 1890s whaler's house on Long Island (where he lives with his girlfriend and their three children). Here he subjects readers to inane ramblings about one day in October 1997 just after the birth of his son, Theo. The yoga, bicycle rides, and new green Volvo station wagon all have a quickly numbing effect. By the last page, when the baby is breast-feeding at the end of a long day, you know that it's not just Theo that sucks. Proof that old performance artists don't die, they move to Sag Harbor and become yuppies.
-ABarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374527210
• ISBN-13: 978-0374527211
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #444,741 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Morbidly compelling, March 23, 2004

By	"jfizia" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morning, Noon and Night (Hardcover)

I stumbled upon a discount copy of Spalding Gray's Morning, Noon and Night and was morbidly compelled to read it. Basically, he recounts a day in his life when his youngest son was still an infant.

Other of his works are better written and with sharper wit and insight, and to plod through this one - to get it - you have to hear Spalding tell it in your head, see his expressions and mannerisms.

This memoir is something of a reflection on parenthood, and, well, everything, in true Spalding fashion. The book is full of sentiments that everyone confronting parenthood can relate to. I found myself angry at him for saying some of it though (OK, so I'm not finished with my anger just yet). Toward the end he writes:

"Here it is only ten-fifteen in the evening and I'm wasted, and I didn't even go to work. I don't know how people do it. I don't know how people raise families and work at the same time. What's more, why would they want to do it? With only one life to live, why bring more life into the world to be responsible for? It's absurd. It's ridiculous, I think. Why complicate your life with more life that you are ultimately responsible for? I love my children, but they could only be accidents born out of a kind of blind passion. I could never have had a child if I had to think about it."

Although he didn't go to work, he didn't do much parenting either. His girlfriend, working from a home office, also cooked, managed the household renovations, tended to the baby. He was selfish and spoiled - yoga, bike-ride, drinking.

But in the light of his death this work also sketches a portrait of a very sad, confused, scared - desperately scared - childish man. (Lots of inky water imagery too.) The humour and the wonder had already started leaving him.

http://magnificentoctopus.blogspot.com

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's still Spalding, October 26, 1999

By	J. Rockwell "mail me at: [e-mail]" (Moreno Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Morning, Noon and Night (Hardcover)

I had the opportunity to see this work performed by Spalding Gray at UCLA and I must say that some of the grit and edge in Gray's earlier monologues was no longer present.

However, I am always amazed at Gray's ability to tell simple stories and I remain in awe at his facile use of language and description.

A true artist evolves over time, so even if I don't enjoy the kinder, gentler Spalding as much, I must still respect him for for what he is--one of the greatest monologue-ists out there...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peace of mind through displaced anxiety, June 11, 2002

By	Mr. T. Matthews (Ilford, Essex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.