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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A writer invites an artist to stay at her family’s guest cottage in a “summer in the country” type story. Cusk’s narrative is in the form of the writer, M, relating her story to someone named Jeffers. It is a very inside book, where the main action are the things the characters are not saying to one another. M is unusually needy, but her neurosis is at times so cartoonish it is hard to tell whether she is actually tragic or comically tragic. What the book lacks in plot is more than made up for in exploring many themes: freedom, the power of art, motherhood, etc. Even though her prose is sharp, Cusk was never able to really pull me into her world, perhaps because there is very little likable about the two focal characters. It is clear early on that ‘Second place’ is a double (triple?) entendre, so I did some research to try and see how much else in the novel I missed and learned that it is a fictionalization of an obscure memoir. Supposedly, if you read the memoir “Second Place” makes much more sense. Nothing about this intrigued me enough to read the memoir, which is disappointing because I had heard great things about this author. Still, on both reputation and obvious talent, I will give her another shot at some point. Unfortunately, this one just fell a bit flat.
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
as pretentious and formless as the characters- which are quite well developed. not very gripping.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 ⭐, personally found the book dragged on so it took a long while for me to finish but nonetheless eminently perceptive and clever notably on motherhood, womanhood, and identity, which were subjects that struck me the most
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character