The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen (2014) is a novel by American novelist Michael Cunningham, best known for his 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours. Set in the gentrifying neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, in 2004, The Snow Queen follows the closely interlinked lives of four characters as they struggle to come to terms with the terminal illness of one of their number.

As the novel opens, Barrett Meeks is walking home through Central Park. He has just had a painful break-up, one of a long series of painful break-ups. Looking up, he witnesses a “pale aqua light” hovering in the sky over his head: “He felt the light’s attention, a tingle that ran through him, a minute electrical buzz; a mild and pleasing voltage that permeated him, warmed him, seemed perhaps ever so slightly to illuminate him.”

Barrett hurries home to the apartment he shares with his brother, Tyler Meeks, and Tyler’s fiancée, Beth. Tyler is a struggling musician, endlessly rewriting a love song for Beth, which he intends to play at their wedding. Beth is terminally ill with cancer of the liver. Although they are a close couple, both Tyler and Beth secretly wonder if they would still be together if it weren’t for Beth’s illness and the sense of shared purpose and mutual dependency which her illness provides. Tyler has another secret: he is addicted to cocaine, which he believes improves his songwriting. Without it, he fears he will never finish his song for Beth. While Barrett knows that Tyler used to take cocaine, he does not know that Tyler is still using the drug.



Barrett learns that no one else witnessed the aquamarine light. He begins to wonder what it could have been. He feels drawn to the conclusion that his witnessing the light was a spiritual experience of some kind. He has been a resolute atheist since turning away from the Catholicism in which he was raised, but he decides to attend mass the next morning. He is so embarrassed by his spiritual turn that he doesn’t mention it to his brother.

Meanwhile, Tyler is miserable. Caring for Beth takes a heavy psychological toll. He makes an insufficient living singing in a bar, and his dreams of musical stardom are becoming increasingly unrealistic. It is the eve of the 2004 Presidential Election, and Tyler feels incredulous rage at the possibility that George W. Bush might be re-elected.

Beth spends much of her time asleep, “getting neither better nor worse.” She is haunted by bad dreams, in which she must search for a lost item without knowing what it is, or take a gumball from a machine that she knows contains one poisoned candy. Today, she feels well enough to work a shift at the clothing store she established in hip Williamsburg. Owned by Beth’s friend, Liz, the store sells pricey vintage clothing (t-shirts start at $250). Barrett also works in the store. He finds his job mildly humiliating, having started his adult life as a prodigy, educated at Yale and set for great things. He has a hopeless crush on Liz’s boyfriend, Andrew.



In the novel’s next section, Beth’s cancer has disappeared, as if by magic. Her doctor is cautious but optimistic. All four characters are thrown into turmoil by this extraordinary reversal. Even Beth struggles to return to ordinary life, having accepted that her death was inevitable. She feels pressure to be grateful when she isn’t. Barrett connects Beth’s recovery to his ongoing spiritual quest: to him, the disappearance of Beth’s cancer is a miracle. Tyler is overjoyed to still have his fiancée, but he is no longer a carer, which makes his life feel even less purposeful than before. His drug use, too, seems less justified now, but he cannot stop.

Tyler and Beth consider moving, in order to start over. Cautiously, they open the question of whether Barrett should come with them, and they find themselves at odds. Barrett struggles to accept that with Beth well again, his brother no longer needs him as much as he did. Liz feels similarly that Beth is drawing apart from her.

Within months, Liz’s cancer returns, and she dies. Barrett, Tyler, and Liz meet to scatter her ashes. Barrett and Tyler move out, to different apartments. On his first night alone, Tyler invites Liz to stay with him, and we learn for the first time that Liz and Tyler have been having an affair for years. They begin to wonder if they have a future as a couple.



Liz thinks they do, but she wants to get away from New York. She decides to move to California and she asks Tyler to come with her. Tyler is unsure. He tells Liz he will join her when he has finished his album.

Before she leaves, Liz appoints Barrett to manage the clothing store. Barrett has started a new relationship, and it seems to be flourishing. He credits his experience in the park with making a positive change in his life or at least heralding it. Tyler, alone in his new apartment, increasingly desperate to perfect his songwriting, turns from cocaine to heroin.

The Snow Queen’s major themes include existential despair and spiritual longing. The novel is shot through with references to Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the same name. Cunningham’s sixth novel, Publisher’s Weekly hailed The Snow Queen as “poignant and heartfelt.”