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The first of a trilogy (with Transit and Kudos) from a remarkable author I discovered thanks to the New Yorker. This is a novel about a middle aged female writer who spends time in Greece to teach a course about writing, and the characters she meets and speaks with before and during the journey.

Not a very sexy premise, granted, but the book is riveting for its insights into human nature.

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michèle rousseau

superbe

Commenté en France le 27 février 2016

Un livre d'une grâce et d'une écriture exceptionnelle de la prt d'une auteure qui tisse une toile fine et resserrée sur le couple et l'amour. Certainement le meilleur livre anglais de cette année 2015,

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xiancee

excellent read

Commenté en France le 26 juin 2016

Ce livre à été abordé avc son auteure lors de l'émission COSM§OPOLITAINE de Paula Jacques. Cette émission va disparaître l'an prochain ce qui est une HONTE. On peut demander qu'elle soit conservée, atant la seule émission littéraire présentant des auteurs étrangers, Rachel Cusk était là pour parler de son livre ce qui m'a donné envie de le lire, mystérieux et attachant, le livre et l'amision

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Fi

Dull and boring

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 28 août 2018

Truly dreadful, dull and boring. Having read the recent praise heaped on the third book of Cusk’s trilogy, like another reviewer I too bought this as I wanted to start from the first.

I read it on holiday and hated it. I persisted but it really put me in a bad mood. I found myself getting wound up by minor things like Cusk’s repeated use of the word ‘bitterer’ instead of ‘more bitter’ for example, and she also seems to think Ireland is part of the British Isles, which wound me up further. The characters have little to redeem them, there is no plot and it comes across as quite vain and narcissistic.

I really wanted to like this, given the number of recommendations in the papers and on Twitter, but I can only assume that the author’s friends have written them.

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Morganlefay

Really not a book I found enjoyable, or even worth reading.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 11 août 2018

There were good reviews of the third volume of this trilogy so I wanted to read it, but to start with the first book of the trilogy. I really disliked it, and almost stopped reading it ( which I almost never do however much I dislike a book). I often read for the plot, which this book doesn't have, nor any notable characters. A series of descriptions of people you know nothing about, and care less didn't do it for me. But I did finish it, and even started on the second book, which I did stop reading in the middle. I do not understand all the hype !

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Sandra Davies

beautifully-written but (for me) characters unbelievably articulate.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 23 février 2019

I bought this on the strength of a review of the recently-published third novel in this trilogy, remembering that I have four others of hers and, while rarely tempted to re-read, did enjoy them.

Reading this suggested that one of the reasons why was that I found her characters less than believable insofar as their conversations, their willingness to discuss their lives and their mistakes, so very articulately, never rang true. Throughout the book I was aware of reading a novel - a very well-observed and beautifully-written novel - written by someone who revels in doing so, but whose failure to create believable scenarios forever felt like an exercise in doing so, rather than creating a world her characters inhabited.

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C H

Response summary

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 10 novembre 2017

Outline is a novel written in the first person major who is consciously telling the story. The initially nameless, female writer, flies out to Athens for a week to teach a writing summer school class. The novel is set in the modern day. We come to learn that the narrator is a recently divorced mother. The narrators experience during the teaching week is the frame story, around which we get to know the other characters life stories, with a philosophical point of view

The first two male characters are nameless. The first she refers to as the ‘billionaire’ the second who features predominately, is referred to as the ‘neighbough’. The billionaire has lunch with the narrator and completely outlines his life story — not leaving time to discuss the literary magazine he was thinking of starting up. The ‘neighbough,' who she initially sits next to on the aeroplane, tells the narrator his complete life story from his schooling to his failed marriages. He then later goes on to make a clumsy pass at her aboard his boat during the second of their two rendezvous.

The first named character is Ryan, another writer who is teaching alongside her at the summer school. Ryan comes across as an unlikeable character. Cusk achieves this by describing how he chooses to walk on the inside of the pavement, whilst explaining he doesn't want to be a road casualty statistic — leaving the narrator to walk on the busy roadside. He also shares his life story whilst leering at a young waitress, then justify’s himself by announcing ‘my wife eyeballs the fellas.’ Cusk (2015,p.45) Ryan later finds the narrators friend Elena attractive, but quickly makes his excuses to leave when he hears they are meeting Melete a pre-eminent lesbian poet.

The next character to open up to the narrator is divorced Paniotis. An old writer friend quickly followed by Angeliki, a successful author. Angeliki sees herself as a spokesperson for suffering womanhood, but ironically claims she is afraid when traveling to new and familiar cities without her husband. Both discuss distancing relations with their children. The narrators own children only contact her fleetingly when they want something. Cusk writes about a few of the students at the summer school who vary in personality and neuroses.

Cusk demonstrates that the narrator is a judgemental and unfriendly character when she writes ‘it was this eccentricity that had made me answer him’ Cusk (2015,p.6) implying that if the ‘neighbough’ wasn't eccentric she would have refused to answer him. The narrator is a contrarian and doesn't hold back voicing her thoughts on other peoples lives. She is sharp and intelligent and judges conversation as though she is critiquing a book. ‘I remained dissatisfied by the story…lacked objectivity…relied too heavily on extremes…the moral properties it ascribed to those extremes were often incorrect.’ Cusk (2015,p.29) This demonstrates the narrator takes things literally when listening to dialogue and constantly looks for flaws and consequently finds them. The narrator is a woman of few spoken words and appears to have a mystical presence that when people meet her they openly share their life story. Allowing the narrator to judge their stories for preciseness and bias.

Throughout Outline there is a strong theme of failed relationships. Cusk, an author and divorcee wrote Aftermath (2012) a controversial book detailing her own separation and divorce which received much criticism. Previously Cusk wrote A life's work (2001) a frank and honest book about her becoming a mother. Outline seems to be somewhat of an amalgamation of these concepts, maybe hinting at an autobiographical element. Cusk certainly seems to have written what she knows and the reflective and argumentative side of the narrator is of no surprise when armed with this knowledge.

As a writer I find Cusk has bravely laid out her soul in her books and I am surprised that this has not left her feeling exposed or vulnerable. I hesitate as to whether I could dare to do the same. Sharing a short poem of brutal-inner honesty, is just about cringingly manageable. Someone reading an entire novel of me philosophically musing about my relationships, and their total and utter failure is like being stood nailed, and naked on a brightly lit church pulpit. Could I?

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Roman Clodia

Extraordinary, literarily sophisticated, postmodern to its last full-stop

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 20 décembre 2018

An extraordinary piece of writing which conjures up new possibilities for the novel. If you're looking for plot and rounded characters in Victorian fashion, best step away now - this is a book which engages with postmodern concerns about the amorphousness of identity and writing-as-living.

The narrator only gradually comes into being as the stories other tell bounce off her, creating the 'outline' of the title. Flawless writing, hypnotic reading.

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