The novel is divided into what are essentially three discrete short stories, unified by common threads such as character names and types, story location (New York City), story themes (such as shared humanity), and the presence of Walt Whitman (whether through actual physical presence, quotation of his works via narrator or character, or the spirit of his ideas expressed through narrator or character).
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Michael Cunningham is a favorite writer of one of Scissor Sisters' lead singers, Jake Shears, and gave Shears an advance copy of Specimen Days.
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Walt Whitman's poetry is also a common thread in each of the three stories, and the title is from Whitman's own prose works.
Happy Days | Around the World in Eighty Days | Days of our Lives | Biological specimen | Three Days Grace | Hundred Days | The Last Days of Pompeii | Death Valley Days | Days of Our Lives | Around the World in Eighty Days (novel) | Days of Heaven | 28 Days | Days Inn | Seven Days Battles | 30 Days of Night | Days of Thunder | The Last Days of Disco | The Last Days | Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days | Latter Days | Glory Days (musical) | Glory Days | Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne novel) | Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 film) | 40 Days and 40 Nights | 28 Days Later | 28 Days (film) | The Last Days of Pompeii (1935 film) | Some of These Days | Never Too Late (Three Days Grace song) |