Cusk

[Jemmy Bloocher]

I haven't, but now I will.

I did read one of her early ones (Saving Agnes I believe) many years ago,
but maybe I fell by the wayside also due to being underdeveloped and not
ready to read it. I don't know, but she is clearly a writer one must get
to. Thanks for the recommendation John.

On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 11:12 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have read her, just one.......I feel I do not get her, understand what
> she is doing ultimately, mostly because
> I don"t. ...she is doing what you say and I feel I did not try hard enough,
> did not find the right clues
> YET.......technically magnificent I'll agree....but somewhere I'm not, not
> yet......she made me feel old
> and set in my reading ways and therefore stupid...."it's me not you" I'd
> tell her. As if she would care nor should she.
>
> And it all ties into, is in fact an analogy of some kind indirectly. She
> wrote an essay once on being in a book group.
> I forget the book, but Chekhov (but could only be stories then?) or
> Chekhov-like comes to mind. All that nothing happning
> except everything subtlety........but the point of her piece was that
> everyone else fidn't like it, found fault, all the usual stupid
> reading shit--'couldn't identify', didn't like the characters, nothing
> happens, etc.....
>
> We are left genuinely knowing Rachel was so beyond all that that it,  the
> group consensus almost baffled her. (I could be projecting a world here)
> ...but not really. She was figuring them out precisely.
> ..
> THAT being Common Readers.......
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 7:47 PM John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Has anyone on the list read Rachel Cusk's trilogy (I think maybe you
> > have Mark K?)
> > I've had bouts of waking in the night recently and have read almost
> > all of the three books entirely between the hours of 3am-7am, but it's
> > easily the most accomplished writing I've encountered in years, maybe
> > decades. I don't want to try to describe what she does but it reframes
> > so much of my thoughts on fiction that I am constantly left marvelling
> > at what she's done.
> > Probably the closest comparison is Sebald; I also think of the
> > Norwegian novelist Vigdis Hjorth (maybe because I read her recently
> > too).
> > It's technically magnificent but also does things with
> > subjectivity/objectivity and the whole philosophy of narration that
> > are profound and striking.
> > That said, I could imagine a lot of readers thinking it was just a
> > bunch of conversations.
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
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>