Outline

The Outline Trilogy, Book 1

By: Rachel Cusk

Narrated by: Kate Lock

A luminous, powerful novel that establishes Rachel Cusk as one of the finest writers in the English language.

A man and a woman are seated next to each other on a plane. They get to talking - about their destination, their careers, their families. Grievances are aired, family tragedies discussed, marriages and divorces analyzed. An intimacy is established as two strangers contrast their own fictions about their lives.

Outline is a novel in 10 conversations. Spare and stark, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing during one oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises. She meets other visiting writers for dinner and discourse. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her neighbor from the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves: their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss.

Outline takes a hard look at the things that are hardest to speak about. It brilliantly captures conversations, investigates people’s motivations for storytelling, and questions their ability to ever do so honestly or unselfishly. In doing so it bares the deepest impulses behind the craft of fiction writing. This is Rachel Cusk’s finest work yet and one of the most startling, brilliant, original novels of recent years.

©2014 by Rachel Cusk (P)2014 by W. F. Howes, Ltd.

Might it be better in print?

I bought this Audible book because the author is highly considered, and my daughter is reading one of her books.
The narrator reads with lots of inflection and supposed meaning, and yet, somehow, the effect is of cool distance.
It took me a while to figure out that the book was going nowhere, that we were entreated to find, if not meaning, at least some interest in so many conversations.
I stuck it through to the end.

Difficult and Better in Print

This is a tricky little novel. The narrator is extremely passive -- "I had come to believe more and more in the virtues of passivity, and of living a life as unmarked by self-will as possible" -- listening while others relate their stories and observations, and so there's a languid, discursive quality to the book. I found my mind wandering while I listened, as you might when sitting on a ferry, overhearing other passengers, tuning in and out of conversations. Sometimes a beautiful phrase or fascinating insight would catch my attention, and I'd find myself turning back to the text so I could reflect on the passage: "It was impossible, I said in response to his question, to give the reasons why the marriage had ended: among other things a marriage is a system of belief, a story, and though it manifests in things that are real enough, the impulse that drives it is ultimately mysterious." That kind of language is harder to catch on audio, and so I'd stop for a while and pick it back up when I had time to devote great attention, and even then I rarely felt motivated to dive back in. I also didn't care much for the reader, Kate Lock, who tries too hard with Greek accents, or overdramatizes a woman talking while she eats honey from a jar: Lock makes a constant smacking sound with her lips, sounding like Winnie the Pooh.

Fine

The writing is overall tremendous because of its propulsion, but the characters are strikingly boring and the beats as predictable as 2017 pop. The way, though, they are written is stellar. This felt more like an exercise than an experience. A try-out. Hope the next one has more pop and action besides an extensive summarized dialogue.

The tone of the narrator is perfect

This book is a beautifully constructed set of dialogues (really monologues) delving into questions of identity and consciousness as exhibited in male and female relationships. I thought the narrator did an excellent job of capturing the nuances of each character’s conversations.

The prissy overacted voice reading the book

Remind me never to listen to another book narrated by Kate Lock. What a haughty reading!