TWO MINUTES TO EVERYTHING

Cumming offers a wandering novella of love, loss, and second and third chances.

A narrator named Daniel (“You are Daniel-who-handles-it. Daniel-who-is-there. Daniel-who-doesn’t-need-anything-because-Daniel-is-fine”) recounts various moments in his life, starting from childhood and moving through multiple failed relationships and the tentative beginnings of one that he believes may heal him. Though brief, the book covers a good deal of emotional ground without flinching from what life inflicts. It begins with the narrator in a troubled marriage, remembering a key moment under a Toronto streetlight: “Two minutes of just being present in my own life.” He then recalls other important moments, from a childhood hockey game to his time playing in a band to co-founding a tech company, before focusing on the women in his life. At times joyful and heartbreaking, the journey will appeal to those who have experienced similar love and loss. Throughout, the narrator is often paralyzed by doubt, circling his choices as he tries to understand where things went wrong. As a result, Daniel’s musings sometimes read more like a therapy journal than a cohesive novella. Characters are introduced, only for the narrator to retreat from them, as if theirs are not his stories to tell: “It doesn’t belong to me alone and some of it belongs to people who never asked to be in this story.” The book’s sensitive handling of a character’s transgender journey is a great strength, revealing the loving heart of the protagonist. More moments like these might have helped deepen readers’ connection to Daniel’s journey. For many readers, though, the book will read more like extended self-criticism than a fully realized narrative; the theme of romantic relationships is so central to the work that other aspects feel diminished or unreal.

A promising, if uneven, portrait of the ways in which people lose and find happiness.