Reviews

A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.

The more they talk the more elliptical their listener becomes, as she shapes and directs their accounts until certain themes begin to emerge: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and the mystery of creativity itself.

Outline is a novel about writing and talking, about self-effacement and self-expression, about the desire to create and the human art of self-portraiture in which that desire finds its universal form.

Thank you Goodreads and Picador USA for a chance to read Outline by Rachel Cusk!

I received this in a giveaway. I am not sure if it is something I would have bought on my own just by reading the cover, But man am I happy that I got the chance. I am at a lost really on how to explain this book. It's not that it is bad because it's not its intriguing. It's one of those books you start to read and think there's no way I'm going to finish this and the next thing you know you have finished. This book is like being inside a writer's head when he or she is getting ready to write a book. They have a list of characters they want in the book so they start interviewing them. While the characters are being interviewed, they are telling the writer all these different stories. I don’t know if I'm describing it right but it really was a different read. One I would recommend to someone that is looking for something different to read because this book is definitely unique. Happy reading everyone!

yyadler's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective slow-paced

4.5

eunicek82's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective slow-paced

3.0

I love the idea of this book. The idea that we shape our own narratives and also that our own narratives shape us. I also loved Cusk’s incisive writing. At first, I was really into it, especially when the focus was on her and 1 other person at a time. However, by the end, when she was getting stories from her students, I felt the impact fizzle and then it all felt a bit too navel gaze-y. I did like it enough to try more Cusk.

coombesmolly's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

More...