| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
Rachel Cusk
new books, used books, rare books by Rachel Cusk
› Find all books by 'Rachel Cusk' and compare prices› Find signed collectible books by 'Rachel Cusk'
Arlington Parkby Rachel CuskISBN 0312426720 (0-312-42672-0)
Softcover, Picador USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Arlington Park'Book summary:Set in a moderately posh suburb of London, acclaimed British novelist Rachel Cusk's Arlington Park is a captivating exploration of how the simple act of living can become an excruciating exercise in self-deprivation, hypocrisy, and desperation. Set over the course of a single day, the novel follows a group of young mothers who feel both anger at the husbands who seemingly imprisoned them in a world of minivans and coffee klatches, and resignation about the fates they seem destined to fulfill.
While Arlington Park may deal in toddlers and tater tots, it is certainly not another generic Mommy Lit clone. Cusk is a skilled writer, and in her hands, a dreary lunch at the mall food court is transformed into "lost property, but for people." As the day progresses, we watch as Juliet chops her hair off in a small, if meaningless act of rebellion, Amanda stifles a burning desire to scream at a neighbor's kid for ruining her white sofa, Maisie blames her parents for not loving her enough while throwing her daughter's lunchbox at the kitchen wall, and Christine stuffs chicken breasts while silently cursing her husband for spending too much time getting ready for a dinner party. In each scene, the oppressiveness is almost unbearable, prompting readers to practically beg these women to flee as far and as fast as is humanely possible.
Of course, in driving her readers to the edge of frustration and outrage, Cusk succeeds in creating a novel that penetrates deeper than most. Still, after turning the last page, you might find yourself reaching for a little Mommy Lit candy to take the edge off. --Gisele Toueg [via]
More editions of Arlington Park:
- Arlington Park: ISBN 0571228488 (0-571-22848-8)
Softcover, Faber & Faber, Limited - Arlington Park: ISBN 0374100802 (0-374-10080-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux - Arlington Park: ISBN 057122847X (0-571-22847-X)
Hardcover, Faber & Faber, Limited - Arlington Park: ISBN 0312426720 (0-312-42672-0)
Softcover, Picador USA
- Arlington Park: ISBN 0571228488 (0-571-22848-8)
The Country Lifeby Rachel CuskISBN 0312252803 (0-312-25280-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Country Life'Book summary:In Rachel Cusk's The Country Life, city mouse Stella abruptly abandons her London career and man for a job in Sussex. Her mission: to care for and transport young Martin, the disabled son of country mice Piers and Pamela Madden, owners of Franchise Farm. Alas, all is not ambrosia in Arcadia. For a start, the Maddens are, well, maddening. The paterfamilias sports "an expression of bright vacancy on his rosy face" whereas his wife evinces a more dramatic sort of derangement: "Pamela, I realized, spoke a language of energetic emergency, in which problems were approached as violently as they were escaped from." To make matters worse, not only does our heroine lack any background in her new field--she doesn't even know how to drive. Long before she's forced behind the wheel, however, Stella is out of her element. Nature, even the very air, seems against her. In one devastating tour de force, she falls asleep in the sun and is hideously burnt (but only on one side of her body!) and then suffers an indoor avian attack.
Fans of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm will recognize more than a few nods to her classic in Rachel Cusk's hilarious and caustic third novel. For a start, the locals are unfailingly lugubrious, and every dog seems to have it in for our girl from the city. As for her young charge, Martin is either an emotional monster or a savior--though we readers might well opt for the former. The Country Life again and again displays Cusk's eye and ear for surreal comedy and social unpleasantry. Suffice it to say that your idea of a pleasant sojourn--or even a brief walk--in the country will never be the same. --Kerry Fried [via]
More editions of The Country Life:
- The Country Life : A Novel: ISBN 0330349236 (0-330-34923-6)
Softcover, Pan Macmillan - The Country Life: ISBN 0312198485 (0-312-19848-5)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr - The Country Life: ISBN 0330349228 (0-330-34922-8)
Hardcover, Picador - The Country Life: ISBN 0312252803 (0-312-25280-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
- The Country Life : A Novel: ISBN 0330349236 (0-330-34923-6)
-
In the Foldby Rachel CuskISBN 0571228135 (0-571-22813-5)
Softcover, Faber & Faber, Limited
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'In the Fold' 
A Life's Work: On Becoming a Motherby Rachel CuskISBN 0312311303 (0-312-31130-3)
Softcover, Picador USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother'Book summary:The experience of motherhood is an experience in contradiction. It is commonplace and it is impossible to imagine. It is prosaic and it is mysterious. It is at once banal, bizarre, compelling, tedious, comic, and catastrophic. To become a mother is to become the chief actor in a drama of human existence to which no one turns up. It is the process by which an ordinary life is transformed unseen into a story of strange and powerful passions, of love and servitude, of confinement and compassion.[via]
In a book that is touching, hilarious, provocative, and profoundly insightful, novelist Rachel Cusk attempts to tell something of an old story set in a new era of sexual equality. Cusks account of a year of modern motherhood becomes many stories: a farewell to freedom, sleep, and time; a lesson in humility and hard work; a journey to the roots of love; a meditation on madness and mortality; and most of all a sentimental education in babies, books, toddler groups, bad advice, crying, breastfeeding, and never being alone.More editions of A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother:
The Lucky Onesby Rachel CuskISBN 0007161328 (0-00-716132-8)
Softcover, Perennial
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lucky Ones'Book summary:The Lucky Ones is a novel about creating and sustaining life during times of great transformation. The five people whose lives converge here are also haunted by family -- the longing for love, the struggle to connect.
A young pregnant mother wrestles with utterly changed circumstances; a new father searches for a sign of the man he used to be; a daughter yearns for a lost childhood; and a mother reaches out in bewilderment to a child she can't fully understand. Accidental connections and overlapping relationships build a complex family portrait: all are linked by the elemental impact of children on adult lives.
This profound evocation of family and its magnetic bonds reveals the mysterious forces that separate us from those we love and bind us to what we no longer understand.
The Lucky Ones will stop you cold with its startling precision and power. Demonstrating a rare gift for illuminating "the bustling concourses of life" without sacrificing emotional depth or complexity, this rare and stunning novel confirms Rachel Cusk's place among our most incisive writers.
[via]
Saving Agnesby Rachel CuskISBN 031227193X (0-312-27193-X)
Softcover, Picador
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Saving Agnes: A Novel'More editions of Saving Agnes:
- Saving Agnes: ISBN 0312252560 (0-312-25256-0)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr - Saving Agnes: ISBN 033033347X (0-330-33347-X)
Hardcover, Picador in association with Macmillan London - Saving Agnes: ISBN 0333588975 (0-333-58897-5)
Hardcover, Macmillan Publishers Limited - Saving Agnes: A Novel: ISBN 031227193X (0-312-27193-X)
Softcover, Picador
- Saving Agnes: ISBN 0312252560 (0-312-25256-0)
The Temporaryby Rachel CuskISBN 0312269994 (0-312-26999-4)
Hardcover, Picador
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Temporary'
![[powered by Muze Inc.]](http://i.bookfinder.com/images/site/muze/powered_by_muze.gif){kind=small}