You know how you sometimes come across the right book at the right time? Well this was the case for me with “Outline“. Even though it might sound crazy but I’m adding Rachel Cusk to my list of all time favorite authors upon reading just this one book of hers. I instantly fell in love with her style, her way of expressing things, her observational skills, her subtle sense of humour and her choice of words all throughout the book. I’m a bit late to join the bandwagon of her appreciators since she has already published “11 novels and four works of nonfiction since her 1993 debut, “Saving Agnes” ” (Chatterton William, 2022).

I said that I thought most of us didn’t know how truly good or truly bad we were, and most of us would never be sufficiently tested to find out.

p. 64

[…] [H]e was no longer interested in socialising; in fact, increasingly he found other people positively bewildering. The interesting ones are like islands, he said: you don’t bump into them on the street or at a party, you have to know where they are and go to them by arrangement.

p. 91-92

The first pages of the book started with the main character leaving on a trip to Athens, Greece, and I started reading it while sitting in an airplane going to Athens myself… I knew before picking it up that the story would be situated in Greece but I didn’t realize how perfectly it would coincide with my travel plans. If you plan on going to the Greek capital yourself, there is no better book than this one to take along with you!

On the tarmac at Heathrow the planeful of people waited silently to be taken into the air. […] We were strapped into our seats, a fiel of strangers, in a silence like the silence of a congregation while the liturgy is read. […] She led us through the possibility of death and disaster, as the priest leads the congregation through the details of purgatory and hell […].

p. 4-5

I finished the book in no time and I would have probably read it in one sitting if I didn’t have any other obligations. The chapters flowed with ease, I was highlighting passage after passage within them, laughing out loud to some stories and most importantly, I found extreme enjoyment in the words on the pages. The variety of themes that was written about was extremely broad but they were presented in such a skilled way that the narrative didn’t feel spread thin. The topics ranged from relationships, marriage, divorce, affairs, interactions between men and women, as well as people in general, to languages, beauty, appearance, criticism of oneself and motivations in life. Even though this sounds extremely varied, all these different little ideas were strung together perfectly.

There was a poem, she said, by Beckett that he had written twice, once in French and once in English, as if to prove that his bilinguality made him two people and that the barrier of language was, ultimately, impassable.

p. 231

At evening, with the sun no longer overhead, the air developed a kind of viscosity in which time seemed to stand still and the labyrinth of the city, no longer bisected by light and shade and unstirred by the afternoon breezes, appeared suspended in a kind of a dream, paused in an atmosphere of extraordinary pallor and thickness.

p. 90-91

The novel seeming to have so many similarities with the author, I was curious to find out exactly how autobiographical it was. One of her interviewer’s called “Outline” “an innovative autofictional novel” (Chatterton Williams, 2022). Upon my further research after finishing the book, it has become apparent that its particular style was the author’s reaction to the criticism that she has received for her work publicly. She therefore went for such a different piece of writing that has been described as anti-action and anti-plot (Peterson. 2015). This fit in perfectly with my interests since I much rather enjoy in-depth character studies than plots filled with non-stop action.

I replied that I wasn’t sure it was possible, in marriage, to know what you actually were, or indeed to separate what you were from you had become through the other person. I thought the whole idea of a “real” self might be illusory: you might feel, in other words, as though there were som separate, autonomous self within you, but perhaps that self didn’t actually exist.

p. 105

The way certain mundane things or actions were described made me look at them in a different way and the author’s style reminded me of the one of another one of my favorite authors – Deborah Levy (I have previously reviewed her books “Hot Milk“, “Things I Don’t Want to Know“, “The Cost of Living” and “Real Estate“). I adored every single chapter so much and not a single word felt out of place. Whereas I felt completely immersed in the story, I couldn’t help but notice how every word seemed to have been chosen to perfection and nothing felt out of place. What made this even more impressive was after I found out that she has written the book in just about three weeks time (Chatterton William, 2022)!

He spoke a refined and formal kind of English that did not seem wholly natural, as though at some point it had been applied to him carefully with a brush, like paint.

p. 7

I’m torn between both wanting to read EVERYTHING else that exists out there written by Rachel Cusk and being terrified of being disappointed after reading another book by the author. I definitely need to hold myself back from buying every single book of hers in the Faber & Faber editions. Their minimalist design, with the specific font and the simple photos are an absolute dream in my point of view. I’ll also be indulging in many more interviews with the author, as I have discovered a keen interest in her opinions. She has a way of expressing her thoughts as precisely out loud as one can read them in writing, similar to the way I have seen it for Ocean Vuong, another favorite author of mine (I’m still praying for whim to write another novel besides “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” during his lifetime!). In any case, this was perfection inside out and I highly suggest you to read “Outline” yourself!

★★★★★ (5/5)

_{Edition: ISBN 978-0-571-34676-9
Faber & Faber, 2018 (first published in 2012)}

Sources:

Chatterton William, T. (2022): “Rachel Cusk Won’t Stay Still”. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/10/rachel-cusk-wont-stay-still/671824/. Last accessed: 21/10/2023.

Peterson, B. (2015): “Mommy Meanest. Can the most hated novelist in Britain redeem herself?” The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/120931/rachel-cusk-outline-review-can-british-novelist-redeem-herself?blinkaction=newsletter!amp_newsletter. Last accessed: 21/10/2023.

All book covers: https://www.goodreads.com/.