Book Review: Rachel Cusk: The Slow Construction of a Writing Life by Cynthia Newberry Martin - Page 3

If I were not reading all of Rachel Cusk’s books to look at how her writing develops over time, I would not have finished her sixth book, In the Fold, published in 2005. With this novel, Cusk continues to experiment. Moving away from what she has done so well in the past - women and interior monologue, this book is narrated by a man and filled with dialogue. Perhaps an important step in a writer’s development is to try something different. It establishes a reference point: You do that better than this. And then you can go boldly forth.

There are other opinions: In the Fold was long listed for the 2005 Booker Prize. The name of the country home where most of the action takes place is Egypt - no explanation given. As to why the narrator's friend lives with his father rather than his mother, the answer, which refers to Egypt, is: “This is our home. It’s the place that matters, not the people in it.”

Arlington Park, the book that started this journey, was published in 2006 and shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. It is well written and digs deep into truth, into that “inarticulable darkness.” It’s about women - real and flawed. It’s about marriage. It’s about not only the lives we plan to live and choose to live, but the lives we end up living. In an article written in 2005, Cusk said, “I remain fascinated by where you go as a woman once you are a mother, and if you ever come back.” This is the book she wrote after making that statement. The first sentence: “All night the rain fell on Arlington Park.” The falling of rain appears like a refrain throughout the book. The rain falls on everyone in Arlington Park. It falls on all of us. The novel is divided into ten unmarked sections: 1 - the rain fell; 2 - Juliet; 3 - Amanda; 4 - Christine, Maisie and Stephanie at the mall; 5 - Solly; 6 - in the park/the rain had stopped; 7 - Juliet; 8 - Maisie; 9 - Christine; and 10 - party at Christine’s with Juliet, Maisie, and Maggie. In the first section on Juliet, she is listening to a recording of a song by Ravel:

The sound of it brought tears to Juliet’s eyes. It was the voice, that woman’s voice, so solitary and powerful, so - transcendent. It made Juliet think she could transcend it all, this little house with its stained carpets, its shopping, its flawed people, transcend the grey, rain-sodden distances of Arlington Park; transcend, even her own body, where bitterness lay like lead in the veins. She could open somewhere like a flower ... open out all the petals packed inside her.

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Article Author: Cynthia Newberry Martin

Cynthia Newberry Martin is a writer whose work has appeared in Contrary and Storyglossia, among other journals. Her first novel, The Painting Story, was a finalist in the Emory University Novel Contest. She writes "catching days," a blog on reading, writing, and life, and is working on a new novel. …

Visit Cynthia Newberry Martin's author page — Cynthia Newberry Martin's Blog