A review by jennifer
Outline by Rachel Cusk

4.0

It's been a while since I read Joan Didion's fiction, but this reminded me of the lingering sensation of those novels--that is, the sense of the lone, disconnected female protagonist. The story structure is a series of narratives told by other people the protagonist, Faye, who is visiting Athens to teach a writing course, encounters during her trip. At first I thought it unrealistic how detailed and intimate some of these stories are given they are essentially told between strangers. Then I remembered all the things that have been said between my hairdressers and me over the years and was reminded how we humans are sometimes most comfortable being most intimate with strangers. So there's this constant tension between the detail and intimacy of these stories and the fact that we don't really know the protagonist who's the conduit of them. The plot and the structure are interesting but not at the expense of being enjoyable.