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savvylit's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Though the setting and protagonist are consistent, Outline is more of a series of vignettes than one cohesive story. In each chapter, Faye converses with different characters while adding very little to the dialogue herself. Each new conversation consists of the characters revealing intimate details about themselves and their relationships. These often extremely self-aware people spend a great deal of time reflecting on their past and justifying their actions.
Faye is perhaps the vaguest protagonist I have ever encountered in literature. And yet, what little detail is given about her eventually reveals a nebulous portrait to the reader. Throughout Outline, there is a thread of bitterness and resentment among all characters towards the obligations of marriage and parenthood. This thread reflects Faye's own feelings; she herself is a recent divorcee with two children.
Ultimately, I thought that Outline was a very effective meditation on regret and the sort of intimate conversations that you can only have with people you may never meet again. I'd like to read more Cusk in the future- though maybe not the next book in this trilogy.
Faye is perhaps the vaguest protagonist I have ever encountered in literature. And yet, what little detail is given about her eventually reveals a nebulous portrait to the reader. Throughout Outline, there is a thread of bitterness and resentment among all characters towards the obligations of marriage and parenthood. This thread reflects Faye's own feelings; she herself is a recent divorcee with two children.
Ultimately, I thought that Outline was a very effective meditation on regret and the sort of intimate conversations that you can only have with people you may never meet again. I'd like to read more Cusk in the future- though maybe not the next book in this trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
The scene involving animal cruelty is brief but very harsh.graybat's review against another edition
reflective
fast-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
4.0
why did no one react to her beating that dog up
anyway i felt like so many things were said and yet nothing happened .
the last chapter made me like it more
anyway i felt like so many things were said and yet nothing happened .
the last chapter made me like it more
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
heini's review against another edition
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Infidelity
c8lin's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-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? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Eating disorder
ci_reads's review against another edition
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? Yes
2.0
This book follows a woman traveling to Greece to teach a writing seminar after the break up of her marriage, and we see little vignettes throughout her trip of people she meets and the stories they tell about themselves. There is very little plot, and the book is largely a collection of conversations between the main character and her colleagues, students, friends, and strangers.
The writing was quite beautiful, and I found myself highlighting many passages of astute observations of human emotion and motivation, but I can't say I enjoyed the book or that I would read something else by this author. It was interesting in that it really reflected humanity through each conversation and mirrored the experience of what it is like to listen other human beings, but overall, I just don't think it was my cup of tea.
Also, who on earth goes sailing alone with a man they met the day before on an airplane...
The writing was quite beautiful, and I found myself highlighting many passages of astute observations of human emotion and motivation, but I can't say I enjoyed the book or that I would read something else by this author. It was interesting in that it really reflected humanity through each conversation and mirrored the experience of what it is like to listen other human beings, but overall, I just don't think it was my cup of tea.
Also, who on earth goes sailing alone with a man they met the day before on an airplane...
I replied that I wasn't sure it was possible, in marriage, to know what you actually were, or indeed to separate what you were from what you had become through the other person.
It was a funny idea, writing in a language not your own. It almost makes you feel guilty, she said, the way people feel forced to use English, how much of themselves must get left behind in that translation, like people being told to leave their homes and take only a few essential items with them. Yet there was also a purity to that image that attracted her, filled as it was with possibilities of self-reinvention. To be freed from clutter, both mental and verbal, was in some ways an appealing prospect; until you remembered something you needed that you had to leave behind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
ste11a's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty
courtsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Minor: Eating disorder
literallyerin's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty
maittrix's review against another edition
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
perfectlystill's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
There's a real disconnect here between the narrator and the reader, purposefully so. There were a few stories and passages that really seemed to be saying something interesting, but I wonder, over time, how much it'll truly stick with me. As a reader, I tend to enjoy character first and foremost, and this does interrogate the human condition, but without a point of connection to hinge that investigation on, I'm not sure how much I'll ultimately retain. I do feel I got something out of it, and I feel other readers will be able to mine ever more from it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Eating disorder
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