Reviews

Outline by Rachel Cusk

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bellep's review against another edition

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challenging reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

merynr's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

There was something about this book that keeps me from heaping more praise on, but the good things I did note include absolute gems about living a life - there were a few times I bookmarked a page or paragraph for how suddenly and deeply incisive or insightful something was, to a point that Cusk often made me stop, nod, and really **think about what she wrote, what felt so resonant or right about it. And that is consistent throughout the entire thing.
I also really appreciated how she constructed the view through which we were 'seeing' the conversations taking place, and how even as we followed our main character, the slate felt both informed by her life that we learned about in drips and drabs, but also clean, somehow, even though it is her life we're getting a peek into.
But the things that kept me from really loving this also resulted in the below-4 rating. The structure in theory was intriguing to me - a conversation per chapter to learn and see and listen and be brought along. But I often found the work to get through a chapter, get through the conversation, get through the flow until it started to marinate and make sense was a slog. Even just now, my choice of 'get through' is how I felt throughout the whole book, which isn't what I wanted to feel like. After I would shut it to stop for the evening, I was glad I read it, and was still thinking about some of her points, but during reading, I did find myself counting down pages or paragraphs (and sometimes you'd get two solid pages of writing without any break at all, in terms of paragraph or idea changes).
And the other thing, which honestly may have been intentional but did keep me from appreciating this more, was that despite the very human insights happening, and despite the fact that the story was told through interactions between people, I felt very lonely and removed reading this book. The feel of it was oddly separate from the mechanism through which the story was being told, somehow, and every time I picked it up, I felt that cold, detached feel and I didn't love it.
But, is this worth the read? Yes. Is it work? Yes. Are there moments of great writing and great insight? Absolutely.