Rating: 
Summary: Old and New Cape Cod
Review: "A Walk Through Provincetown" is not your typical travel guide. Cunningham was invited to contribute to a series of travel books and this is his unique and inspiring contribution. It's a one man journey across a town that he first came to over twenty years ago. Cunningham has given us an interesting combination of historical facts and personal reflections. He describes Provincetown's cultural interests, its shops, bars, street life, heritage, gay cruising areas, and its historical sites.
Cunningham presents a very personal view of Provincetown, one that is filled with wonder, joy, and a deep love of this town. He always writes beautifully, and this book includes poems and prose passages from many of Provincetown's other distinguished writers. This book is a pleasure to read for anyone who cares about this very special place, and for those not familiar with the town, a way to learn about it from someone who cares. This is an elegant personal tour of a town that has always been rich in diversity. Hopefully, it will remain that way for this generation and generations to come. Cunningham has made a great contribution in furthering that goal. A wonderful book! Joe Hanssen
Rating: 
Summary: One Man's Love of Land's End!
Review: "A Walk Through Provincetown" is not your typical travel guide. Cunningham was invited to contribute to a series of travel books and this is his unique and inspiring contribution. It's a one man journey across a town that he first came to over twenty years ago. Cunningham has given us an interesting combination of historical facts and personal reflections. He describes Provincetown's cultural interests, its shops, bars, street life, heritage, gay cruising areas, and its historical sites.
Cunningham presents a very personal view of Provincetown, one that is filled with wonder, joy, and a deep love of this town. He always writes beautifully, and this book includes poems and prose passages from many of Provincetown's other distinguished writers. This book is a pleasure to read for anyone who cares about this very special place, and for those not familiar with the town, a way to learn about it from someone who cares. This is an elegant personal tour of a town that has always been rich in diversity. Hopefully, it will remain that way for this generation and generations to come. Cunningham has made a great contribution in furthering that goal. A wonderful book! Joe Hanssen
Rating:
Summary: I've never been there...
Review: ...but Michael Cunningham's achievement is that, now, I feel like I've visited at least twice. I loved this little book. The writing is crisp and atmospheric. He paints specific pictures and portraits. In fact, I had dinner with Provincetown devotees the other night, and I was able to talk about the place as if I too were a regular visitor.
Rating:
Summary: Quiet Reflection
Review: A long time fan of Michael Cunningham's words, it was a delight to see his most recent work, "Land's End: A Walk through Provincetown". A short book, simple read, but grand in scope and beauty. Cunningham manages to capture the essence of the little town on the crook of Cape Cod. It is not meant to be a travel guide, even with the visual descriptions of pratically the entire town. Cunningham weaves his prose/poetry into this text, so that as you are reading, there are places where the writing becomes soft and lyrical. I eagerly anticipated those moments; Cunningham at his finest. Perhaps I loved this book because I love Cunningham's work as well as the town he tributes. I now live on the other side of the country, and a Provincetown trip is no longer a weekend jaunt. But I'll treasure "Land's End", and whenever I need to slip away, this book shall return me there.
Rating: 
Summary: A Gay Man Walks...and walks...and (?)...in Provincetown
Review: I bought this book having read another book in the series about Nantucket, and having lived on the Cape for a good part of my life, I am always interested in adding another book on the Cape to my small collection. This book however is not so much about Provincetown, a town on Cape Cod, as it is a gay guy's experience of life in P-town. It begins well enough. Then the author shares with us that he prefers the company of men. Okay, do we really need to know? Well, apparently, because he goes on and on until he takes us into an almost surreal Breugel-esque night landscape of men languishing after men's love. One has the impression that beyond every dune, behind every door and around every corner there are men having sex- not just any men, but painfully beautiful men according to the author. On page 119, I learn that Provincetown is being "widowed by AIDS"- being a widow myself I wonder what the comparison is that he is making- will we be left with only the natural beauty of the Cape to comfort us? Will we be able to go to the beach without having to ask how to get to the heterosexual family beach? (Well, I did learn that much). One can only hope. I agree with another reviewer that the research is meager- the anecdotes uninteresting. What a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Old and New Cape Cod
Review: I have never been a lover of P-town. As a child, my family made a yearly visit to climb the Pilgrim Monument, but as I got older, the long drive from our Harwich vacation home (also on Cape Cod) home made climbing the monument less appealing. Every now and then, I did visit the place, but more often than not, I found it crowded and congested, and always had trouble finding a parking space. The art galleries, a small book store, a store that sells all sorts of odds and ends, and of course the people made a visit to the town worthwhile, but I never realized what all the hype was about until I read this book. Lands End gave me an appreciation for the town and the people, and the history, and when I recently visited the town, I had a new appreciation for this interesting and varied community, largely due to Cunningham's ability to be a "tour guide." Cunningham's book is almost a guided tour, not by a tour director who is just doing a routine job, but one who actually loves the place being visited. As he takes readers on a tour of the sights and sounds of the town, we see a place where he grew both as a person and as a writer. Though the work is factual, it flows more like a book of prose than a piece of journalism. Cunningham's awe of the rugged beauty of this small town on the Atlantic coast is easy to detect. He also seems to feel as if he is a kindred spirit to the artists and writers who inhabit this town, known both on and off season as an art and writing colony. His book treats the locals with respect. Provincetown has become rather well known as a "gay Mecca." Cunningham certainly makes mention of the many aspects of this town that are part of a gay culture, but Cunningham writes in such a way that the entire Provincetown community-locals, gays and straights, artists, writers, business people, and tourists, all make Provincetown the beautiful, somewhat quirky, but interestingly cohesive community it is today. People who love Cape Cod will enjoy this book. Those who have visited the town will have a greater appreciation of the community after reading this book. Tourists will find the book a nice memory of a unique town. Provincetown visitors who are less than fans may find a new appreciation for the town and will once again struggle with the transportation woes of the town.
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Summary: "i should rape a saint"
Review: i love this book so much....... its a portrait, its beautiful. im obsessed with provincetown now. i need to go there.
Rating:
Summary: If you can't make to Ptown, this is the next best thing...
Review: I try and make it Ptown every year but unfortunately I couldn't this year, however, when I saw this book and began reading it I was magically transported to that magical place that it truly is. From Spiritus Pizza to the A-House to the dick dock and the dunes, Michael Cunningham captures the very essence that make people want to return there year after year. I will definitely be getting a few more copies for my friends for Christmas.
Rating:
Summary: Homespun prose from an elegant voice
Review: LAND'S END should find an audience among travelers who trek as frequently as possible to the inimitable Provincetown, among the poets who reference this quaint bit of yesteryear, and among those who are just magnetized by Michael Cunningham's eloquent writing. The subtitle "A Walk Through Provincetown" sets the tone of this little treasure book as Cunningham maintains a warmly generous spirit in sharing every aspect of what makes PTown unique. For those of us who have spent vacations there we are allowed the insiders' view of how we transients are perceived. There is much humor here, not of the malicious kind but rather of the droll New England style. Cunningham is able to describe the physical beauty of the Cape like a painter, and at the same time he interjects the gossip of the small town to ground us in this survey of life in a different clime. There is history here, and there are poems by friends of the author whose visions heighten the pleasure of the journal. This is a wonderful read related by a sensitive and, of course, immensely gifted writer. After reading LAND'S END you will feel as though you've been there........or possibly plan to go. Highly recommended little book.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Book About a Fine Place
Review: Michaeal Cunningham loves Provincetown and conveys that love in every sentence in this beautifully written book about a great town. He ably does what every travel writer should do: he convinces those who have never been to Provincetown to visit and makes those who have been there want to return. Mr. Cunningham does a thorough job of describing the town's geography as well as both the famous artists who lived there in the past and those of the present, also the "town characters" one can run into on the busy streets on any summer day. There is also poems by Mark Doty, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky and Melvin Dixon, among others included throughout the book. Finally Mr. Cunningham discusses the effect AIDS has had on the gay population of Provincetown in a chapter called "Death and Life" and pays tribute to a friend named Billy who died from AIDS. "Provincetown has been widowed by the AIDS epidemic. It will never fully recover, though it is accustomed to loss. . . Provincetown possesses, has always possessed, a steady, grieving competence in the face of all that can happen to people. It watches and waits; it keeps the lights burning. If you are a man or woman with AIDS there, someone will always drive you to your doctor's appointments, get your groceries if you can't get them yourself, and take care of whatever needs taking care of." Is there any wonder why this writer loves Provincetown?
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