Who’s Afraid of RAchel Cusk?

Rachel Cusk is a writer of sensitive incisive perception of human behavior and thought. Her novel story is told in first person but is about the lives and events. Of her characters. It is a creative lierary piece of art. It definitely requires and deserves re-reading to fully appreciate all the rich detail of her writing
Carolyn Jacobson

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Spare writing, little plot, but still transporting

Not much happens in this novel, a sequel to Outline. I'm not sure you need to have read that novel first but it probably gives you more context. While there's little to no plot to describe (our recently divorced heroine has now returned to London after her time in Athens in the first novel, and is renovating a flat), Rachel Cusk pulls you in with the atmosphere of Faye's world and the people she encounters. It's a little unrealistic I think that so many people spill so much of their personal narrative to Faye, but that's a quibble in an otherwise lovely novel. But if you long for an exciting plot, this probably not for you.

Disconnected and pointless

I am baffled why this was nominated for any kind of award, we 'read' it for book group and were in 100% agreement that it was just tedious. The weird first person/third person narrative style created distance and disconnection and the stories went nowhere and seemed pointless. Within one of the stories a 'writer' made a scathing comment about other writers needing to write about extremes to please readers, which might suggest the author has a principled belief that 'good writing' should focus on the everyday and not attempt to engage the reader. Well she succeeded for me. Oh and this goes for both the first two books in the series - won't bother with the third.