Lost Son by M. Allen Cunningham

In my late 20s I was browsing in a downtown Philadelphia book store and happened upon a slender volume, Letters to a Young Poet. It changed my life. A few years later, I took the Duino Elegies on vacation to Maine, and sitting on pink granite cliffs overlooking the Atlantic ocean, I opened it and read the words, "If I cried out/who would hear me up there among the angelic orders?" It gave me chills.

Forty years later, I still read Rainer Maria Rilke and still struggle with understanding the words that thrill me. 

When I heard of a novel about Rilke I ordered a copy and it languished on my TBR shelf until I found myself the recipient of an egalley of previously uncollected Rilke poetry. I had to revisit Rilke to understand where the poetry came from. I hoped that M. Allen Cunningham's novel could be help.

Lost Son  follows Rilke's life from 1875 to 1915, incorporating the poet's letters into his text. 

Rilke's parents had lost a daughter; his mother turned her son into that lost daughter, naming him Rene Maria and putting him in dresses until his father took a stand. Rene was sent to military school, where he endured much suffering. 

His family had determined his sex, his education, his career, all unsuitable to his disposition and sensitive soul. He knew he was to be a poet.

At the center of his story is Lou, an older, intellectual, beautiful woman who eventually becomes his lover. Although married, she had remained a virgin. She listened to him, counseled him, consoled him, traveled abroad with him.

And then, held him at a distance. She studied with Freud, remained with her husband. Rilke met a young artist Clara. A pregnancy brought them to marry. Clara had studied with the master sculptor Rodin, and she encouraged her husband to write a monograph about Rodin.

Rilke took Rodin as his mentor, taking to heart the advice Rodin did not even follow: that work must displace everything else for the artist. Solitude was necessary for the artist to work.

And so he befriended women, felt eros, and fled.

Rilke struggled with his art in isolation, separated from his family, wandering from place to place, finding succor and temporary lodging, writing endless letters to Lou and Clara and everyone else he met along the way, pouring out his anguish and thoughts and communing from afar.

Rilke was out of France when the Germans took over; in effect, he was exiled from his home, his apartment, his possessions, his everything in this world.

"Even your papers are gone. Your manuscripts Your hundreds upon hundreds of letters and copies of letters...Uncle Jaroslav's old Rilke family crest. The small silver-framed photograph of your young Papa..." Cunningham writes, the chapter concluding with Rilke's letter to Princess Marie that ends,"Once again, my heart has fallen out."

Perhaps this is not a novel for 'everyone,' as Rilke's writing is not for 'everyone'. But for those who love the poet, it does feel right, a slant of light illuminating a difficult life. Cunningham immersed himself in Rilke's writings, especially those letters, and recreates Rilke's life in poetic prose.