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Wow, that was fast reading. I'll be looking for your review.

Hi Lisa, just GR up to its usual fun. I started reading this about five days ago, I think. Anyway, review's now up, your wish is my command!

“The two primary themes are how marriages fail and what role animals should play in our lives.��

That’s an interesting combo. I suspect animals are there to provide comfort after a failed marriage?

More like single moms are too tired to fight back when the kids insist on adopting a puppy, which inevitably turns into a disaster for all concerned.

One does not look to Cusk for sunshine and rainbows.

Left Coast Justin wrote: "Hi Lisa, just GR up to its usual fun. I started reading this about five days ago, I think. Anyway, review's now up, your wish is my command!"

If only the rest of the world would be so obliging . . .

It is interesting to read your review of this book after reading Candi's. I'm still on the fence about this one.

I do love that last passage you quoted. I find that lack of awareness can greatly contribute to the disintegration of relationships and our ability to achieve the things we want to in life.

I've only read one novel by Cusk (Second Place), and I feel like I had a similar experience. Now that you mention it, I did feel like it pointed out my laziness as a reader. Interesting review, Justin!

Lisa, I hope I don't steer you away from trying it -- Cusk is quite a skilled paragraph-by-paragraph writer and it held my interest. I just left it feeling somehow that a larger point was being made and I was a bit too thick to get it.

And yes, many of my largest regrets in life were for things I did completely unintentionally -- just not thinking things through.

Regina, at a recent family gathering, I was explaining how I had recently made a deliberate attempt to train myself to like olives (a complete failure.) My younger brother was mocking me for "my ceaseless and futile attempts at self-improvement."

Cusk is kind of like that, for me -- I always feel stupid when I finish one of her books, but think, 'the next one will be better.' I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

To be honest, for me to give a book "three stars" is my own "kiss of death," but for a lot of readers, it's a very normal and average rating. Beyond that. . . it's even okay if it's the "kiss of death," though, isn't it? It's YOUR reading experience, not anyone else's.

More importantly: why don't you like olives? Don't you find that they go well with albondigas??

It's so interesting to learn how readers look at books so differently from one another. Kind of like the characters in this book. The interpretations of the stories these characters share vary quite a bit! I have a feeling that there is a lot going on here below the surface with Cusk. I don't think I grasped all of it, which is why I focused on a different aspect of the novel than you have, Justin. As Julie said above, "it's your reading experience." What we bring to it affects how we read it as well, I believe. I'm very curious about her non-fiction after you mentioning her "wrestling with her demons." I'm going to see what else I can add to my list ;) I very much enjoyed reading your take on this, Justin.

Julie, funny you should mention that....Today I actually had to drive into the office for one of my rare visits, and since it was last minute I didn't pack any lunch and ended up in this crappy Mexican restaurant nearby. And sure enough, they had albondigas on the menu, in the form of soup.

Anyway, I did like this book, I've just been in a shit mood for the last month or so and my ratings suffer as a result.

Candi, totally agree about lots going on beneath the surface. And now that you mention it, I guess writing was a larger topic than pet ownership.

I'll need to re-read this once I've retired and have some brain cells to devote to it.

First of all I want to say that I laughed out loud when I read this, Justin:
Or perhaps that she intends for her fiction to be read and enjoyed by a much larger audience than the masochistic, tormented souls who are willing to brave the nonfiction.

Second and last of all (aha!), I believe this novel is a great piece of understated fiction that I loved but totally understand why some other readers might not. Sometimes it's all about the journey and not the destination. Also, as I'm sure you know, this is the first part of a trilogy and perhaps you'd get the "answers" you needed in the next two volumes. Or maybe not.

Great review.

Thanks, Pedro. I think books that are essentially plotless, like this one, might be more subjected to the mood one is in while reading it than plot-driven books. If I had been in the mood to be challenged about my assumptions and interpretations of life, I probably would have really loved this, instead of just liking it. Don't drink and drive. Don't ingest antibiotics on an empty stomach. Don't read Rachel Cusk when you're stressed and tired.

For what it's worth, I think it's the author's job to make us want to bother, and that's where Cusk falls short. Of course, my opinionated opinion is only based on reading one of her books, The Second Place, which I found... enigmatic... to put it nicely.

none of it added up to a whole lot, for me

Yep!

Totally fair point, Robin. Truly great authors make it difficult for me to tear myself away from what I'm reading, and that simply did not happen here. I do suspect, though, that in a different mood, and with fewer demands on my time, I probably would have connected the dots better on this one and enjoyed it more as a result.

I have a love-hate relationship with Cusk, Justin. I was disappointed in this one after being blown away by Transit, but still liked it - and her writing - a lot. Funny, I much prefer her crisp, cold, insightful assessments in her fiction than in her nonfiction. There was something more hopeful in Transit, and in Kudos, which balanced them better for me, and made them feel deeper than this. Will you try her again?

Honda Civics are the bomb. Thanks for the laugh, GWTPSM!

On a less amusing note, my review appears to have vanished for some reason. Sigh.....Thanks, GR

Left Coast Justin wrote: "Honda Civics are the bomb. Thanks for the laugh, GWTPSM!

On a less amusing note, my review appears to have vanished for some reason. Sigh.....Thanks, GR"

Oh no! I hate when that happens.

Jennifer, at the very least I'll read the other two parts of this trio (Transit and Kudos). She's one of those gotta-be-in-the-mood-for-it writers.

Oh bugger Justin, I leapt over here, I almost twisted a knee. How disappointing you lost your review!!

Mark, someday I'll need to re-read this so I can write another review. Worse things have happened!