21st Century Literature discussion

Tamara is unable to lead this discussion, so I am stepping in to get things moving. I will create spoiler threads tomorrow.

Transit is the second part of Rachel Cusk's "annihilated perspective" trilogy, in which the narrator Faye tells her story almost entirely in the form of reported conversations. The other parts are Outline and Kudos, but they are all self-contained and there is no need to read them in order. Transit is largely set in London, where Faye is overseeing the renovation of her flat.

Cusk is a British-Canadian novelist who has published 7 other novels in addition to this one. Among her many prize nominations, her debut Saving Agnes won the Whitbread first novel award, and In the Fold was longlisted for the Man Booker. All three parts of the trilogy were shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and two of them for the Giller Prize.

A few reviews (expect spoilers):
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n09/patrici...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
https://www.torontoreviewofbooks.com/...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/bo...

I am reading this trilogy backwards, with this one being, as appropriate, the second and my second but with the first yet to come. Unfortunately, I won't be able to participate in the discussion until the end of the month due to traveling and having 3.5 books on the NBA fiction longlist to finish.

Sorry I can't lead the discussion, but I just got back from a two-week vacation in Scandinavia and am scrambling to get caught up with stuff.
I've read the novel and loved it. I'm looking forward to participating in the conversation.
Thanks, Hugh, for leading the discussion.

I finished the third in the trilogy this morning, Kudos. The first two were vacation reads in late August, early September. I look forward to the discussion. I haven't taken Transit back to the library yet -- am taking advantage of being able to renew it.

I've read the first two, and am holding off on the third until the new year so as to make sure I don't blend them together too much in my head.

I go around saying Rachel Cusk is one of my favourite authors, and am then surprised to remember I've only read three of her books, the other being motherhood memoir A Life's Work, which I credit with saving my sanity.

I find her, minus the motherhood, to be very much a 21st century Virginia Woolf type of writer.

I have now read all of her novels except The Lucky Ones, which I have a copy of too. The earlier ones are more satirical - The Country Life in particular is more like a modern Stella Gibbons than Virginia Woolf.

Ran across a Delphic interview with our author:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the...

Perhaps there's a perspective there, but it just left me confused.

Mark wrote: "Apologies for that weird garbage link. Search for "“I Don’t Think Character Exists Anymore”: A Conversation with Rachel Cusk"
Try this one:
“I Don’t Think Character Exists Anymore”: A Conversation with Rachel Cusk

Hugh wrote: "Mark wrote: "Apologies for that weird garbage link. Search for "“I Don’t Think Character Exists Anymore”: A Conversation with Rachel Cusk"
Try this one:
“I Don’t Think Character Exists Anymore”: A ..."

Thanks! I edited the Google-induced garbage.

Thanks for the review, Mark (and Hugh). I found it helpful in thinking about these novels.

As I indicated elsewhere, I read all three in a little over a month, often times while I was on a couple of very pleasurable vacations in two relatively fashionable, upbeat locations, one on the (New) Jersey Shore and the other in the Hamptons of Long Island, both in the just off season when rents lower significantly, older kids are back in school, and the weather is still nice. I ramble on with this description because somehow it feels relevant to the experience of reading Cusk. In many ways, the anecdotes Cusk writes felt not unlike the conversations we were having as we indulged in early morning sunrises over the beach, as we sat chatting on the balcony in an impending storm waiting for the meatloaf in the oven to cook, or as an erstwhile adult grandson provoked a cell phone intervention.

The seeming commingling of life and reading made it difficult for me to comprehend what Cusk was doing. I wondered if I would need to read her more autobiographical works to better understand and perhaps identify any themes that had eluded my ability to articulate them. The New Yorker interview was helpful, even if it, too, provided not answers, but more ....

Emily wrote: "I find her, minus the motherhood, to be very much a 21st century Virginia Woolf type of writer...."

Can you say more? (That is not a comparison I would have made. Actually, strangely, I found myself comparing Cusk's stream of anecdotes from her narrator with Aristotle's comments about friendship in The Nicomachean Ethics -- except in the case of Aristotle I got so bogged down in arguing with the points he was making that I have never finished the book. Cusk's trilogy was more like trays of cream puffs or perhaps more like savory appetizers -- one could keep nibbling and enjoying the variety, but not necessarily remembering what one had consumed by the end of an evening of socializing.)

One thing I will give to Cusk -- I think perhaps she has made me more aware of what could be gained by being more attentive to the bits (nuggets?) of conversation that flow by my life. Are they additive, into themes of life, or more collages, photographs, snapshots, sometimes just randomly arranged, sometimes providing serendipitous insights?

Lily wrote: "Emily wrote: "I find her, minus the motherhood, to be very much a 21st century Virginia Woolf type of writer...."

Can you say more? (That is not a comparison I would have made. Actually, strangely..."

She is concerned with the place of the woman both in society and crucially as an artist, and in this project she is pushing the novel's form to its limits, much like Woolf. Other novels are inspired by music (she said in an interview that playing Bach contributed to the structure of The Bradshaw Variations) and Woolf too pursued formal innovations jumping off from painting and other arts. I actually read Transit around the same time I finally sat down and finished The Waves and the similarities were striking: books told in dialogue that is not dialogue, monologues adding up to a whole that transcends their parts (though Cusk is very readable and I really struggled through The Waves).

Cusk has frequently written and spoken about Woolf. This ten year old article from The Guardian is very interesting to read in light of what Cusk went on to write:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

Emily wrote: "She is concerned with the place of the woman both in society and crucially as an artist, and in this project she is pushing the novel's form to its limits."

I agree.

I see Cusk as doing something new by trying to erase the narrator and minimize her role. She uses Faye as a vehicle that deflects attention away from itself/herself, recedes into the background, and reports on what she sees and hears without judgment or commentary. Her lens is on the other characters.

She employs the Socratic method to draw the characters out by asking questions, "And then I asked . . ." This method encourages each speaker to reveal intimate details about his/her life. Faye is merely the conduit for communicating snapshots of another's life. We are given the impression of receiving these snapshots in their raw, unfiltered form since Faye doesn't comment or judge. She listens, observes, and reports.

I thought it was very clever and very well done.

Emily wrote: "This ten year old article from The Guardian is very interesting to read in light of what Cusk went on to write..."

Thank you for your response, Emily!

I'm quitting for the night right now, but look forward to returning to the Guardian article.

Incidentally, as much as I like and admire so much of what Woolf has written, I have not "conquered" The Waves yet. :-(