by Rachel Cusk (Cusk)
In Rachel Cusk’s first novel since her stunning Outline Trilogy, “Second Place”, we open with the narrator “M” writing to her poet friend Jeffery about the famous painter “L” who M has invited to stay with her and her husband in their second home. M is a writer and has a broken spirit, but by inviting L to live in close proximity to her, she feels that she can get to the center of the meaning of her life through art by witnessing the artist’s process. The novel is fraught with introspection about the tension between life and art and the roles that they play and have on the artist and the audience. Each sentence peels back the narrator’s inner turmoil and the complexities (often contradictory) of human emotions and behavior.
“Second Place” left me breathless. This novel is slim yet each sentence invites a closer reading and Cusk writes in a hazy atmospheric tone that is perfect to read during the summer.
[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Facts and Furies by Lauren Groff, Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill or The Outline Trilogy (Outline, Kudos, Transit) all by Rachel Cusk.]
[ publisher’s official Second Place web page ] | [ Wikipedia page for Rachel Cusk ]
Recommended
by Maddie O.
South Branch Library
Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
New reviews appear every month on the Staff
Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that
page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog
individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the
reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment