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    Outline: A Novel
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    Outline: A Novel
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    Outline: A Novel
    Ebook202 pages3 hours

    Outline: A Novel

    By Rachel Cusk

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing during an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises. She meets other visiting writers for dinner. She goes swimming with an elderly Greek bachelor. 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 is Rachel Cusk’s finest work yet, and one of the most startling, brilliant and original novels of recent years.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 1, 2015
    ISBN9781443447119
    Unavailable
    Outline: A Novel
    Author

    Rachel Cusk

    Rachel Cusk read English at New College, Oxford. Her first novel Saving Agnes won the Whitbread First Novel Award in 1993. She reviews regularly for The Times and TLS.

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    Reviews for Outline

    3.5/5

    528 ratings42 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I read the 2nd book in this trilogy first. I like this one, Outline, more. How does an author conceive of such a book? There's no real plot, just a week of teaching writing in Greece, and the main character rarely speaks or gives her thoughts. She's a very good listener. So the structure of the story is different but then all of the topics that the other people discuss are so interesting, different and diverse. In Transit (the 2nd book), I felt like there was more I wanted to know. In this book, for whatever reason, I felt satisfied. Kudos, the final book in the trilogy is up next and I can't wait.
    • 3/5
      I picked up Outline because and only because I've heard Cusk's name being dropped as a potential Man Booker Prize contender this year. If she is nominated, it will be for her newest novel, Kudos; but as her newest is the third in a trilogy, I did not want to find myself already two books behind when the longlist drops. So I thought I'd get a head start... just in case.Man Booker Prize nominated books can come in many varieties, but it's not uncommon for the list to have several titles that are intelligent and/or relatively dry. The latter can be difficult for some, but more often than not, I enjoy them despite being slow. I cannot speak for Kudos as I have yet to read it, but man, oh man isOutline boring. I can see why some might think Cusk would be a welcome nominee. If Kudos were nominated, I'd read it, as I didn't dislike Outline or the style Cusk used to bring her story together—it was just abysmally dry.Outline is the story of stories. It's about an author interacting with people in Athens, and telling their stories. But her stories are more like an outline of these characters. There's not much to them. They're not the most interesting stories, but I'm sure they're some kind of a reflection of the author herself. Who am I kidding? This book was so uneventful. There's beauty of words and a certain strong realism to the dialogue, but it lacks plot and character. Still, some people love it. LOVE IT. And I say kudos to them. Personally, I think I missed something, but I'd be willing to give it another go.
    • 4/5
      Cusk is a master at description and can write about a person in such a way that you feel you have become acquaintances and want to know more about them!
    • 3/5
      Interesting writing. I liked it, but didn't love it. Probably best for people who are introverts since it focuses mostly on several two way conversations with the narrator and one other person. Much is her listening to the opining and ramblings of the other individual, so the reader doesn't get much of a sense about her. Since she doesn't seem to have a true sense of herself, that seems fitting. The setting is Greece, but it has little to do with the actual story other than give an interesting backdrop.
    • 4/5
      3.5 This sure is a tough one to rate. While I admire the linguistic skills the author possesses, I can't say I enjoyed the book all that much. I would certainly consider this "literature", and as is so much the case I tend to find this book designation lacking in narrative interest. I can understand it's inclusion in the shortlist, but my bet isn't on this one for the win.
    • 4/5
      Outline is a collection of stories, centered around a narrator who is traveling to Greece to teach a writing class. It should be read as such and not as a traditional novel. If I read too much of the book in one sitting, I felt as if I had been hit over the head with too much psychoanalysis. That being said, I overall found the book interesting, and the author is clearly a very talented writer. I just wasn't able to ever fully remove the author from the book. In other words, for a book to get stars five stars from me, an author needs to not only create an interesting, beautiful picture but make me forget that they are even there. I guess i'm a traditionalist and struggled with the unique format of this book but I also feel it deserves a second reading and is a book i'll hold on to.
    • 4/5
      The narrator (whose name we learn is Faye) is temporarily living in Athens to teach a writing class. During her short visit from the UK, she spends time with a number of people, some who she knows, others she meets. Each has a story; most of the stories have a dark, though not bleak, edge - where the narrator gains a new self-awareness revealing a melancholic dimension to their lives. Faye also is going through a difficult stage - though little is revealed about her thoughts, feelings or circumstances. I think this book is probably great, but I think it will take a second read to confirm.
    • 4/5
      What a writer! Cusk can make a simple conversation seem fascinating. The only thing the novel is lacking is drama.
    • 4/5
      OUTLINE BY Rachel CuskAn enjoyable quick yet insightful read. A writer is invited to Athens, Greece where she is to lead a short seminar in writing. The book relates the different people she interacts with on this trip: the upper middle class man she sits next to on the plane from England, a fellow teacher, students, a Greek publisher, a best-selling Greek poetess and others. The writer, a woman recently divorced with 2 teenage sons back in England, has a knack to get all those she meets to relate intimate details about their lives, their successes, failures, fears, family secrets, dreams and rather mundane details about their lives. In doing so, we gain insight into the ways of life, for the characters she meets, the writer and ourselves.A thoughtful entertaining book.
    • 4/5
      The first thing I noticed about Outline is that Rachel Cusk can write. This should not have come as a surprise, but since I was reading this on the heels of finishing I Am China, whose prose was not its strong point, it was more striking than it might have been. The book is packed with masterful descriptions and observations and vignettes. A story one of the protagonist's writing students tells her about a dog named Mimi could be a short story on its own. Open the book to nearly any page and you will find something memorable; this quality makes the book a joy to read. In addition, the structure of the book--which could have been a disaster in lesser hands--is skillfully deployed.
    • 5/5
      If you like V Woolf and esp Gatsby and other books that are written about ideas more than character Or experimental fiction this is a book for you. It is daring and so so well written. The reviews often Include astonishing quotes from the novel. I am here to tell you that there is magical language on about every other page. I am in awe of Rachel Cusk's talent. In awe. Donna Taart level awe.
    • 2/5
      Interesting premise but this novel didn't do it for me. It is set in modern day Athens and is driven by a series of conversations the narrator (a writer) has with acquaintances and strangers there whilst teaching a Summer writing course. I found the pacing and tone to be too...British, for lack of a better word. The narrator is mirthless, detached and largely opaque, and it is through her disinterested voice that each stranger's narrative is retold. The result is that each life story, no matter how compelling, receives the same blunted treatment. All edges are gone; everyone sounds the same. The result is a dull and lifeless read.
    • 3/5
      I found this novel to be beautifully written, but at the end unsatisfying. The writing is a real pleasure: sharp, precise, and rich with insights large and small about the way people act and feel. But for me at least, the material did not live up to the quality of the writing, because it did not draw me in to someone else's life. The narrator presents herself in outline only -- "a shape, an outline, with all the detail filled in around it while the shape itself remained blank. Yet this shape, even while its content remained unknown, gave her for the first time since the incident a sense of who she now was". This does give the reader lots of interesting stories about other people -- "all the detail filled in around it". But for this reader at least, neither the blank nor the stories of other people's lives were compelling enough to draw me in. Caveat lector: the fact that I couldn't get into this novel, of course, may say a lot more about me than about the novel. One reviewer compared the writing to that of Virginia Woolf; to me shame, I have never been able to "get into" Ms. Woolf's books, except for "Orlando". Those who love Ms. Woolf and other writers of similar rarefaction may well love "Outline". Those who love "Middlemarch" probably won't.
    • 4/5
      Outline begins when a woman on a plane bound for Athens is prodded into conversation by the man sitting next to her who narrates the history of his failed marriages. We learn that the never-named woman, a writer, has been invited to teach a creative writing course; her Greek students will all write their short stories in English. Each of the nine subsequent chapters is also told as a conversation, and it's a bit of fun to look for the links between them ("tension" and failed marriages being just two of them). The connections between them indeed fall into the shape of an outline, the kind you made in elementary school, where each main idea cascades into a set of subtopics which, in turn, are broken into their parts. This is a novel where the connections between parts are more significant than the chain of events (which is, in fact, simply the narrator listening to other people's narratives). It's a risky experiment, but Cusk pulls it off quite well. All of the narrators are a bit self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing, and some are more likable than others. I found most interesting the writing students' descriptions of their stories--all of them based on =memories--written in response to an assignment to write a story with an animal in it. As we watch the visiting author listening to these almost one-sided conversations, we learn much about her as well.Overall, Outline is a clever, inventive, and finely written novel.
    • 5/5
      This was the first thing I've read by Rachel Cusk but it will definitely not be the last. The novel reads like a memoir in a series of vignettes linked together over a single stay in Greece. It is not plot-driven but a story unfolds and is compelling tying together in the end. The narrator is never described but details fill in through her interactions and conversations with the other characters. It is very insightful and difficult to put down. It also teaches you to appreciate the value of close observation, detail, and precision in writing. Her characters tell their own stories and have their own voices but each story is masterfully told. It was a quick initial read but I want to go back and take a closer look and then read all her other memoirs, novels and short stories.
    • 4/5
      This is a difficult book to summarise. At face value it has almost no plot - a writer travels to Athens to host a creative writing course and has a series of conversations, mostly with strangers. The power lies in the conversations themselves, which cover a wide range of subjects, one might almost say they cover all human life. Cusk's writing is always stylish and perceptive.
    • 4/5
      I thought 10.04 was disjointed - this has even less of a plot! Still, as with Lerner's book, this series of vignettes is deeply involving, with characters met fleetingly but drawn incredibly well. A great post-divorce holiday read.
    • 4/5
      Faye (although her name only appears once) goes to Athens to teach on a writing course. The novel consists mostly of conversations she has with the man she sits next to on the plane, friends she meets up with for meals and fellow teachers. We learn little directly about Faye and this ties in with a comment made towards the end about how the outline of a personality is where it meets the reality of others' identities. Each character is trying to make sense of life and to draw conclusions or lessons from the mistakes they have made thus far. I think it is fair to say that these are mostly contradictory and, as is often gently point out, self-serving.The tone overall is quite emotionally flat (as opposed even to downright sad) and the narrator's apparent lack of engagement serves to heighten the absurdity and quirks of the other characters. There is dry humour throughout and I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the classes and the contributions of the various students. It was difficult for me sometimes to work out if the narrator held back her own contributions to conversations or if she spent the days meeting up with people entirely unable to stop talking about themselves at great length.
    • 2/5
      Outline by Rachel Cusk; Orange/Baileys S/L 2015; (1 1/2*)no review, just my thoughts and comments:While Cusk's writing is very good this book felt like an opportunity for her to attempt an experimental writing style. It's body consists of a series of conversations, with the link being the narrator. There is no story nor is there a plot and I guess I favor plot driven novels. The book could not hold my interest. I thought there were too many uninspired thoughts to pull it together and lastly I guess I just didn't like it.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful piece of Knausgaard-like writing and character study, even though the main character, a writing teacher from England teaching in Greece for a week, is described only through her interactions with other people. I think these sentences from the end of the book describe perfectly what Cusk was trying to do: ". . . while he talked she began to see herself as a shape, an outline, with all the detail filled in around it while the shape itself remained blank. Yet this shape, even while its content remained unknown, gave her for the first time since the incident a sense of who she now was."That technique of explaining a character through her encounters with other people, reminds me a little, though in a different way, of Olive Kitteridge.Now I must read her memoirs!
    • 4/5
      Rachel Cusk's novel follows a woman teaching a week-long writing class in Athens, Greece. Or rather, we follow what other people tell her about themselves during this week. Faye, newly divorced, is figuring out the new shape of her life. She's being deliberately passive, allowing events to happen to her rather than trying to shape her experiences. And she's allowing other people to talk to her, without requiring that they then listen to her, which turns out to make them quite talkative, from the man in the seat next to hers in the plane on the way to Athens, to the teacher taking the apartment she's been staying in after she leaves. Outline has the feel of a writing exercise. It should feel like less than a novel, being essentially a collection of monologues tied together by Faye's listening presence. There's no plot and little structure, although most of the pieces had to do with relationships and how we frame them when describing them to others. Since it only encompasses a week, and many of the people only speak to her once, there's an unfinished feel to them. Despite all of this, I found Outline to be both beautifully written and compelling in an odd way. I missed my train stop because of this book, which never happens. Despite the fact that each segment was just a portion of a person's view of their life and that none of the characters who spoke to Faye had any real connection to her or any of the other characters, each story was utterly fascinating.
    • 3/5
      This book was kind of OK - there was never really any question of dropping out before the finish - but it really did fail to capture my involvement. Of course that my be my 'fault', but I found that we didn't really get involved with the characters enough for my liking. They all spoke about their lives with a great distance, despite the fact that several were talking about very dramatic and emotional events. I can't quite put my finger on what it is about Cusk's writing that keeps me distant, but whatever it is I think I will now cross her off my To Read list forever. I started her work wanting to read more, but I think I am now completely satiated.
    • 3/5
      This book was on the Scotiabank Giller shortlist but it doesn't hold a candle to the winner, Fifteen Dogs, in my opinion. The books inclusion on the shortlist was rather controversial I understand since Rachel Cusk lives in England and qualifies only by virtue of having been born in Canada. Certainly there is nothing remotely connected to Canada in this book.The back of the book describes it as a novel in ten conversations but I can't believe real people have conversations like this. Who tells the person sitting next to them on a plane the details of two marriages and divorces? Who tells someone they have never met before about a dream involving menstrual blood? Who starts off a conversation with a stranger with an account of an attack by a mugger that involved strangulation? And above all, what woman would give their neighbour on the plane their phone number and address and then agree to go out on a boat with him? It all just lacked credibility.Don't think I'll be hunting down any more books by Rachel Cusk.
    • 3/5
      The pleasure in reading "Outline" lies in how well written it is. It's pleasurable in a cerebral kind of way.
    • 4/5
      A series of conversation an English writer who is teaching a couple of days in Athens, has with a man she meets on the plane and a couple of friends and acquaintances, which are mostly about marriage failures and the resulting muddling of identity, also directed accounts from her students which have wider but overlapping contents. The central character gets in very few words of her own as currently more energetic egos hog the conversations. I think one volume is enough of this sort of thing.
    • 2/5
      At first I had trouble understand the point of this book, but once I got the format down there were some stories/characters I liked abs some I didn’t.
    • 2/5
      I didn't think this lived up to my expectations. A woman traveling is confided in by many different people, revealing herself along the way. I found it a bit too "pseudo-philosophical".
    • 4/5
      Clever throughout, but never transports the reader to a memorable perspective or gives much of a story to latch on to. On the fence about reading the sequels
    • 5/5
      Simply and beautifully written through the conversations that others have with the narrator, about whom we have barely an outline.
    • 4/5
      The writing and content of this book were very interesting, but I did miss being presented more personal information about the narrator. I am not sure that I would want to read more of Cusk's writing in this style.