Outline by Rachel Cusk is unlike anything I have read before.
Our largely unnamed narrator is a novelist travelling to Athens to deliver a creative wriOutline by Rachel Cusk is unlike anything I have read before.
Our largely unnamed narrator is a novelist travelling to Athens to deliver a creative writing course. During this journey and her time in Greece she had a number of conversations. It is these dialogues that deliver a powerful study of loss, relationships, friendships, reflections of self, perspectives of others, and many other elements of what it is to be human.
Perhaps one of the most compelling parts for me was when the man she sat next to on the plane took her on a boat trip for a swim in the beautiful Aegean Sea. Once anchored in a cove, they observe another boat with a family, and she thinks about this family (they look happy), and she makes assumptions watching them. The family of course and each of its members would have their own perceptions of their own reality (they might be dreadfully unhappy), also their perceptions of each other and of themselves would differ � in short, there may be no reality at all.
I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about this book. I was dwelling on the question of ‘who the heck we are?�. To be sure � the perspectives of others towards us wouldn’t hold true (largely), even those who live closely to us wouldn’t know exactly who we are. Most fascinating to me is - we probably don’t even know who we are. One reason being we spend so much of our lives, being someone else. Meaning, we spend so much of our time looking after, managing, responding to the needs of others and the world around us. What have we become through other people? Is the idea of ‘self� an illusion?
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we are so crammed full of our own memories, obligations, dreams, knowledge and the plethora of day-to-day responsibilities � gleaned over years of listening, talking, emphasising. We can no longer be certain what has happened to us and who we have become
This self-reflection has made me think and I have no bloody idea who I am. Seriously, it’s an uncomfortable feeling. Other questions arise from this like, what do we deserve, what do we really want, and what don’t we want?
No matter how busy you are, no matter how many kids and commitments you have if there’s passion, you find the time. For example, you never hear someone say they wanted to have an affair but couldn’t find the time..
I’m excited to learn this is the first of a trilogy � I need to get my hands on Transit #2. I would like to thank Charles, who’s review threw me on the tracks under the wheels of this wonderful, wonderful 240-page behemoth.
Devoid of plot, philosophical, this one is a powerful, beautiful piece of work.
If he could only love what he did not know, and be loved in return on that same basis, then knowledge became an inexorable disenchantment, for which the only cure was to fall in love with someone new ....This said by a character who had an affair to escape those around him, who knew him so thoroughly.
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