And it comes over her in a rush, the memory of what it used to feel like, being alive.
This episode is our first look at a novel by Rachel Cusk, my favorite writer (or co-favorite, with Woolf), and, à mon avis, the most important novelist of the 21st century. We talk about The Bradshaw Variations, from 2009, looking at how Cusk’s narration and its interest in philosophical depth power the book.
We talk about how her use of free indirect style—one more attuned to an “observational mirroring” rather than the messier, more associative syntactic refraction of, say, Woolf—enables her to cover an entire year in the lives of several perspective characters while still getting us close to them. We read out a few passages and talk about the ways that art—what it is and why it matters—gets into this novel. I would definitely encourage everyone to check it out; it’s a great first Cusk book if you’ve never read her. Some really incredible lines and passages all over this one.
Stay tuned for the Substack post with complete show notes in a few days, and in the meantime—stay critical.
Merci !
