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taviaz's review against another edition
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sctittle's review against another edition
4.0
In Cusk’s final installment of her “Faye” trilogy, the narrator travels to a writing conference in an unnamed European city. The novel is basically a series of conversations she has with different people she encounters: the passenger next to her on the plane, fellow writers, a kid hired to escort the writers from the hotel to the conference, a translator, her editor, and people who are interviewing her.
The story about the dog, Pilot, and is owner, is one of the most moving things I’ve ever read and part of me wishes this book was built around that plot. And maybe it is.
As with her the other novels in the trilogy, we find out very little about the narrator, except what’s in the negative space left around these conversations. She’s obviously highly respected; she loves her children; she is moved by natural beauty. But she’s not telling anyone else’s story in particular. The conversations are really monologues, into which the narrator interjects observations and descriptions of the person talking. I’m making this sound really boring, I know, but it’s not. You are in the hands of a confident writer who knows exactly what she’s doing. A lot of the criticism I’ve read about these novels is that Cusk has perfected the anti-novel. Is that like Seinfeld? A novel in which nothing happens? Is the purpose of a novel that something does happen? That characters change? If so, then this isn’t a novel. . . . and yet, Cusk has created a world here. There’s a writer’s festival, which is poorly run by ridiculous people. There’s a beautiful European city that feels ruined, somehow, by some of the bad choices that a lot of cities make, planning-wise. There are a lot of women who have been in unhappy marriages, dismissed or worse by the men in their lives, or who have saved their own lives by escaping some sort of horror. The closing scene casts an enormous shadow over this, and the other books in the trilogy. I don’t know how I feel about any of this, except that I loved reading these books and I’ll continue to read anything Cusk writes.
The story about the dog, Pilot, and is owner, is one of the most moving things I’ve ever read and part of me wishes this book was built around that plot. And maybe it is.
As with her the other novels in the trilogy, we find out very little about the narrator, except what’s in the negative space left around these conversations. She’s obviously highly respected; she loves her children; she is moved by natural beauty. But she’s not telling anyone else’s story in particular. The conversations are really monologues, into which the narrator interjects observations and descriptions of the person talking. I’m making this sound really boring, I know, but it’s not. You are in the hands of a confident writer who knows exactly what she’s doing. A lot of the criticism I’ve read about these novels is that Cusk has perfected the anti-novel. Is that like Seinfeld? A novel in which nothing happens? Is the purpose of a novel that something does happen? That characters change? If so, then this isn’t a novel. . . . and yet, Cusk has created a world here. There’s a writer’s festival, which is poorly run by ridiculous people. There’s a beautiful European city that feels ruined, somehow, by some of the bad choices that a lot of cities make, planning-wise. There are a lot of women who have been in unhappy marriages, dismissed or worse by the men in their lives, or who have saved their own lives by escaping some sort of horror. The closing scene casts an enormous shadow over this, and the other books in the trilogy. I don’t know how I feel about any of this, except that I loved reading these books and I’ll continue to read anything Cusk writes.
sophieflora's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
georgiarose710's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
graceliles's review against another edition
3.0
there truly is nothing like Rachel Cusk’s writing. She understands the human condition like no other (except maybe Sally Rooney.) That being said this book and Transit just did not nearly match the magic of Outline for me. Also the ending was a CHOICE.
dstrand12's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
That ending….
dukegregory's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
I feel as if this novel, during the reading of which one pushes on, with internal sternness and severity, to attempt the inevitable investigation of the writer's signification, the relentless proclivity one has for essential meaning—no matter how inessential signified meaning may be—and uncover the underlying compartmentalization of truth for which one is perpetually searching, continues to prove Cusk's presence as one of the major purveyors of English-language fiction today.
That sentence is an attempt to both capture the high diction of Cusk's narrator while also depicting the mental tailspin it strikes within me. She presents a hyperclarified language that sensorily appears (and is) exacting in a manner not many can compete with, all the while presenting a novel structured as an anti-narrative, like the last two books (more so akin to the first). She echolocates images in a linguistic superstructure that exposes contemporary gender, fame, art, class, honesty, and the loneliness of our time and at the heart of the human condition.
Reading this makes me feel filled with vacuity.
I feel as if this novel, during the reading of which one pushes on, with internal sternness and severity, to attempt the inevitable investigation of the writer's signification, the relentless proclivity one has for essential meaning—no matter how inessential signified meaning may be—and uncover the underlying compartmentalization of truth for which one is perpetually searching, continues to prove Cusk's presence as one of the major purveyors of English-language fiction today.
That sentence is an attempt to both capture the high diction of Cusk's narrator while also depicting the mental tailspin it strikes within me. She presents a hyperclarified language that sensorily appears (and is) exacting in a manner not many can compete with, all the while presenting a novel structured as an anti-narrative, like the last two books (more so akin to the first). She echolocates images in a linguistic superstructure that exposes contemporary gender, fame, art, class, honesty, and the loneliness of our time and at the heart of the human condition.
Reading this makes me feel filled with vacuity.
andreeavis's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25