1. Home
  2. News
  3. Outline by Rachel Cusk

Outline by Rachel Cusk

Posted by Anne M on Thursday, Feb 19, 2015

Rachel Cusks’ most recent work, Outline, follows an English author’s time in Athens teaching a creative writing class. The novel is broken up into ten chapters, each centering on a different conversation the main character has with her friends, her students, and the people she meets during her time there. The main character herself is somewhat anonymous to the reader, rarely discusses herself directly, but things about herself and her life are revealed in these exchanges. You don’t get the normal narration of what the character thinks and feels except in relation to who she meets. You get an “outline.”

If you like deep character studies and self-reflective narration, or even a complicated and evolving plot, then this isn’t your book. This is very much not your book. However, I found Outline palette-cleansing. The conversations are thoughtful and well-conceived and there are some interesting stories related to our narrator that will keep you on your toes. In one chapter, her writing class goes around the room and tells a story that involves an animal and one such story is riveting (I’m not going into detail here because it was one of the most surprising and heartbreaking segments of the book).

If you are looking for a quick, yet literary and provocative read, then I recommend you check out Outline.

About the Author

Anne M's picture

Anne Mangano has worked for the Iowa City Public Library since 2008, serving as the Collection Services Coordinator since 2013. In this position, she oversees ICPL's collection, including the selection, cataloging, processing, repair, and removal of materials, including the library's digital collections. Anne holds a Bachelor of...

Other Posts by Anne M

See more posts from Anne M

Anne M Recommends

  • The house is on fire

    by Rachel Beanland

    FICTION Beanland Rachel
    Historical Fiction

    Richmond, Virginia 1811. It's the height of the winter social season. The General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia's gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city's only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that's done looking for enlightenment in a church. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn't give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater's managers, he'll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he'll have to buy her freedom first. When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.

    amangano's picture

    Rachel Beanland got some buzz for her “Florence Adler Swims Forever.” Her second historical fiction novel is set in 1811 and follows four people who survive the Great Richmond Theatre Fire. There is Sally, the daughter of Patrick Henry who is recently widowed and grieving for her husband, Cecily an enslaved woman in an impossible situation, Jack a young stagehand who is looking for a career as an actor, and Gilbert, a blacksmith working extra hard to buy his freedom as well as his wife’s. These people end up getting caught in this horrific tragic event—and there are severe consequences as well as new opportunities that each person is handed in survival. I will say the first quarter of the book is grim and deals with death and mayhem as we see through the character’s eyes what it takes to survive. I needed some breaks while reading it. It is haunting. -Anne M
See more recommendations

Recent News