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The Bradshaw Variations
The Bradshaw Variations [Hardcover] Cusk, Rachel
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Rachel Cusk
55 books4,264 followersRachel Cusk was born in Canada, and spent some of her childhood in Los Angeles, before her family returned to England, in 1974, when Cusk was 8 years old. She read English at New College, Oxford.
Cusk is the Whitbread Award–winning author of two memoirs, including The Last Supper, and seven novels, including Arlington Park, Saving Agnes, The Temporary, The Country Life, and The Lucky Ones.
She has won and been shortlisted for numerous prizes: her most recent novel, Outline (2014), was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmith's Prize and the Bailey's prize, and longlisted for Canada's Giller Prize. In 2003, Rachel Cusk was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'
She lives in Brighton, England.
Cusk is the Whitbread Award–winning author of two memoirs, including The Last Supper, and seven novels, including Arlington Park, Saving Agnes, The Temporary, The Country Life, and The Lucky Ones.
She has won and been shortlisted for numerous prizes: her most recent novel, Outline (2014), was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmith's Prize and the Bailey's prize, and longlisted for Canada's Giller Prize. In 2003, Rachel Cusk was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'
She lives in Brighton, England.
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July 8, 2023
LA VITA, SENZA ISTRUZIONI D’USO
Non cambia mai, la difficoltà di essere se stesso con quelle persone, la sua famiglia, la difficoltà di trovare la propria autenticità. Dice cose che non sente, e quello che sente più profondamente non lo dice affatto.
“Quelle persone, la sua famiglia” sono la moglie, i figli, i fratelli, le cognate, i nipoti, e i genitori che sono andati a trovare in campagna.
La madre li accoglie, li mette a tavola, poi torna a occuparsi del giardino e quando li vede andare via dice:
Oh, ve ne andate! Mi sembra quasi di non avervi visti.
Suppongo che qualcuno dei figli, o delle nuore, o dei nipoti, avrà pensato tra sé e sé: e allora mamma, se ci tenevi tanto a vederci, potevi stare con noi, invece che precipitarti dal tuo maledetto giardino che hai a disposizione ogni giorno mentre noi veniamo a trovarti una volta ogni tanto.
Il padre non ha mai alzato la voce coi figli, non ne ha mai avuto bisogno, sa comportarsi come un silenzioso carrarmato.
Che cos'è l'arte? Thomas Bradshaw si pone spesso questa domanda. Non conosce ancora la risposta. Un tempo era convinto che l'arte fosse una specie di finzione, ma ormai non lo pensa più. Adesso, per descrivere quello che pensa, usa la parola autenticità. Alcune cose sono artificiali e altre sono autentiche. È facile capire quando una cosa è artificiale. Molto meno quando non lo è.
È l’incipit del libro.
Non che mi sia sembrato particolarmente bello o pregnante: ma poi il concetto ritorna, come nella citazione iniziale. E quindi, bene tenerlo a mente: finzione o autenticità, fantasia o realtà, vero o falso, cos’è l’arte, cos’è la letteratura (e quindi, cos’è ‘sto romanzo).
Ma prima di tutto meglio sgombrare il campo da un possibile equivoco: Cusk è troppo ironica per prendere seriamente il suo incipit - la domanda, e il problema, come ho detto, ritorna qui e là nel romanzo: ma è sempre perché ha un effetto diretto nella vita di uno o l’altro dei personaggi (uno studia musica, un’altra vuole dipingere, un’altra insegna letteratura).
I Bradshaw sono una famiglia con padre e madre, il carrarmato e la fanatica di giardinaggio, e tre figli maschi, Howard, Thomas e Leon.
I figli sono tutti sposati con prole. Quindi la famiglia è numerosa, ci sono cognate, nuore, nipoti, suoceri acquisiti.
Non ci sono mega riunioni tra parenti, quella accennata al principio è la più affollata.
Cusk li prende uno alla volta o a piccoli gruppi, coppie perlopiù. E al centro del suo interesse c’è il matrimonio di Thomas e Antonia, quasi sempre chiamata Tonie, che include una bambina di otto anni, Alexa.
Il racconto dura un anno, da un settembre a quello successivo, il mese che segna per molti, almeno per chi ha figli in età scolastica, l’inizio dell’anno più di gennaio (ricomincia la scuola, le vacanze estive finite…).
Thomas si è appena licenziato per prendersi un anno sabbatico da dedicare all’apprendimento del piano – ed è bravo, una sua esecuzione manda in estati l’insegnante e il suo compagno pianista.
Tonie accetta un incarico full time come preside dell’istituto di inglese all’università.
Ma il fulcro del racconto non è lui che diventa Mr Mom o lei che mantiene la famiglia: Cusk è interessata ad altro.
Il suo interesse è sulle variazioni del titolo.
Variazioni che nel linguaggio musicale la Treccani così definisce: modificazione di un pensiero musicale in sé compiuto ottenuta intervenendo sulla melodia, sul ritmo, sull’armonia, sulla strumentazione (ove vi siano più strumenti), sulle combinazioni contrappuntistiche di esso, operando separatamente o no ma in modo tale da consentire la riconoscibilità del tema di partenza.
Cusk varia seguendo i vari Bradshaw, quale più quale meno, in momenti a caso, generalmente privi di particolare pregnanza (un critico americano ha pensato che scegliesse il soggetto di cui parlare tirando i dadi) – di solito, se raggiunge un momento di suspense, si ritrae e sottrae, passa o salta ad altro, per poi tornare a quel momento quando è certa che il dramma sia risolto, l’acme sedato.
Tra i personaggi da ricordare anche un Jack Russell, che senza bisogno di ricorrere alla psicologia, è descritto in modo magistrale.
Thomas e Tonie, come e più degli altri personaggi, sono abbastanza intelligenti da rendersi conto di cosa non funziona nelle loro vite, cosa manca, sanno arrivare a una diagnosi: ma non hanno la forza di volontà sufficiente per inseguire quello di cui hanno bisogno, hanno difficoltà a uscire dalla propria conchiglia.
Condividono il cibo, il letto, la casa, ma tra loro ci sono vasti spazi inesplorati, dove le loro illusioni si arenano e spengono.
Cusk sa complicare le cose facili, spingerle verso l’astrazione, e sa anche rendere semplici quelle difficili, racchiuderle in una frase di preziosa precisione.
I momenti di silenzio e quiete nel romanzo, quando la coppia, la famiglia, la casa, una stagione sembrano sospesi “come in una goccia d’acqua” che Cusk ci consente di osservare a piacere, sono tra quelli che ricordo con maggior piacere.
Cusk non racconta eventi, storie fulminanti: a fulminarmi è il suo sguardo, la sua osservazione e capacità di penetrare il quotidiano, cosa succede nelle nostre case, nelle nostre stanze da letto. O come la luce del giorno attraversa una casa, modificandola.
I suoi libri sfuggono all’obbligo di fornire un punto di vista per interpretare le immagini che l’occhio vede, le parole che legge.
Lo so, per alcuni la sua ambizione stilistica è irritante ed esasperante, per altri Rachel è “un'evoluzione super intellettuale di una rivista femminile”. Per me rimane una meravigliosa scoperta abbastanza recente: e a questo punto credo d’aver letto tutto quanto di suo è stato pubblicato in italiano.
Non cambia mai, la difficoltà di essere se stesso con quelle persone, la sua famiglia, la difficoltà di trovare la propria autenticità. Dice cose che non sente, e quello che sente più profondamente non lo dice affatto.
“Quelle persone, la sua famiglia” sono la moglie, i figli, i fratelli, le cognate, i nipoti, e i genitori che sono andati a trovare in campagna.
La madre li accoglie, li mette a tavola, poi torna a occuparsi del giardino e quando li vede andare via dice:
Oh, ve ne andate! Mi sembra quasi di non avervi visti.
Suppongo che qualcuno dei figli, o delle nuore, o dei nipoti, avrà pensato tra sé e sé: e allora mamma, se ci tenevi tanto a vederci, potevi stare con noi, invece che precipitarti dal tuo maledetto giardino che hai a disposizione ogni giorno mentre noi veniamo a trovarti una volta ogni tanto.
Il padre non ha mai alzato la voce coi figli, non ne ha mai avuto bisogno, sa comportarsi come un silenzioso carrarmato.
Che cos'è l'arte? Thomas Bradshaw si pone spesso questa domanda. Non conosce ancora la risposta. Un tempo era convinto che l'arte fosse una specie di finzione, ma ormai non lo pensa più. Adesso, per descrivere quello che pensa, usa la parola autenticità. Alcune cose sono artificiali e altre sono autentiche. È facile capire quando una cosa è artificiale. Molto meno quando non lo è.
È l’incipit del libro.
Non che mi sia sembrato particolarmente bello o pregnante: ma poi il concetto ritorna, come nella citazione iniziale. E quindi, bene tenerlo a mente: finzione o autenticità, fantasia o realtà, vero o falso, cos’è l’arte, cos’è la letteratura (e quindi, cos’è ‘sto romanzo).
Ma prima di tutto meglio sgombrare il campo da un possibile equivoco: Cusk è troppo ironica per prendere seriamente il suo incipit - la domanda, e il problema, come ho detto, ritorna qui e là nel romanzo: ma è sempre perché ha un effetto diretto nella vita di uno o l’altro dei personaggi (uno studia musica, un’altra vuole dipingere, un’altra insegna letteratura).
I Bradshaw sono una famiglia con padre e madre, il carrarmato e la fanatica di giardinaggio, e tre figli maschi, Howard, Thomas e Leon.
I figli sono tutti sposati con prole. Quindi la famiglia è numerosa, ci sono cognate, nuore, nipoti, suoceri acquisiti.
Non ci sono mega riunioni tra parenti, quella accennata al principio è la più affollata.
Cusk li prende uno alla volta o a piccoli gruppi, coppie perlopiù. E al centro del suo interesse c’è il matrimonio di Thomas e Antonia, quasi sempre chiamata Tonie, che include una bambina di otto anni, Alexa.
Il racconto dura un anno, da un settembre a quello successivo, il mese che segna per molti, almeno per chi ha figli in età scolastica, l’inizio dell’anno più di gennaio (ricomincia la scuola, le vacanze estive finite…).
Thomas si è appena licenziato per prendersi un anno sabbatico da dedicare all’apprendimento del piano – ed è bravo, una sua esecuzione manda in estati l’insegnante e il suo compagno pianista.
Tonie accetta un incarico full time come preside dell’istituto di inglese all’università.
Ma il fulcro del racconto non è lui che diventa Mr Mom o lei che mantiene la famiglia: Cusk è interessata ad altro.
Il suo interesse è sulle variazioni del titolo.
Variazioni che nel linguaggio musicale la Treccani così definisce: modificazione di un pensiero musicale in sé compiuto ottenuta intervenendo sulla melodia, sul ritmo, sull’armonia, sulla strumentazione (ove vi siano più strumenti), sulle combinazioni contrappuntistiche di esso, operando separatamente o no ma in modo tale da consentire la riconoscibilità del tema di partenza.
Cusk varia seguendo i vari Bradshaw, quale più quale meno, in momenti a caso, generalmente privi di particolare pregnanza (un critico americano ha pensato che scegliesse il soggetto di cui parlare tirando i dadi) – di solito, se raggiunge un momento di suspense, si ritrae e sottrae, passa o salta ad altro, per poi tornare a quel momento quando è certa che il dramma sia risolto, l’acme sedato.
Tra i personaggi da ricordare anche un Jack Russell, che senza bisogno di ricorrere alla psicologia, è descritto in modo magistrale.
Thomas e Tonie, come e più degli altri personaggi, sono abbastanza intelligenti da rendersi conto di cosa non funziona nelle loro vite, cosa manca, sanno arrivare a una diagnosi: ma non hanno la forza di volontà sufficiente per inseguire quello di cui hanno bisogno, hanno difficoltà a uscire dalla propria conchiglia.
Condividono il cibo, il letto, la casa, ma tra loro ci sono vasti spazi inesplorati, dove le loro illusioni si arenano e spengono.
Cusk sa complicare le cose facili, spingerle verso l’astrazione, e sa anche rendere semplici quelle difficili, racchiuderle in una frase di preziosa precisione.
I momenti di silenzio e quiete nel romanzo, quando la coppia, la famiglia, la casa, una stagione sembrano sospesi “come in una goccia d’acqua” che Cusk ci consente di osservare a piacere, sono tra quelli che ricordo con maggior piacere.
Cusk non racconta eventi, storie fulminanti: a fulminarmi è il suo sguardo, la sua osservazione e capacità di penetrare il quotidiano, cosa succede nelle nostre case, nelle nostre stanze da letto. O come la luce del giorno attraversa una casa, modificandola.
I suoi libri sfuggono all’obbligo di fornire un punto di vista per interpretare le immagini che l’occhio vede, le parole che legge.
Lo so, per alcuni la sua ambizione stilistica è irritante ed esasperante, per altri Rachel è “un'evoluzione super intellettuale di una rivista femminile”. Per me rimane una meravigliosa scoperta abbastanza recente: e a questo punto credo d’aver letto tutto quanto di suo è stato pubblicato in italiano.
September 12, 2019
I enjoyed this dark, unusually structured novel, thought it partly stands out in its relationship to Cusk's OUTLINE trilogy. This is the last novel she wrote before that unique, sparse, thinly plotted triptych, and it is fascinating to see what is Cuskian (a keen eye, a disillusioned women, complex sexual dynamics over dinner, cruelty to dogs) and what isn't. What isn't hurts this book in some ways.
Because the melodrama is high in the Bradshaw family, and the Outline trilogy is the least dramatic book I've read. The ending of this novel has a pairing of brutal, plotted shocks that crossed over into inadvertent (I think) humor in their over-the-top-ness. I enjoyed the novel before its violences, and was struck by how well Cusk manages time shifts and jumping from character to character. The lead, Thomas, is an especially strong creation.
There is occasional, intentional plot disorientation that was interestingly unnecessary, caused by not identifying characters at the beginning of chapters. I don't know why she did this, but I enjoyed it all the same.
I would not read this book before OUTLINE, but it is a fascinating example of Cusk's powers, and equally strong evidence that she made a canny decision in stripping out the weakest points of her fiction.
Because the melodrama is high in the Bradshaw family, and the Outline trilogy is the least dramatic book I've read. The ending of this novel has a pairing of brutal, plotted shocks that crossed over into inadvertent (I think) humor in their over-the-top-ness. I enjoyed the novel before its violences, and was struck by how well Cusk manages time shifts and jumping from character to character. The lead, Thomas, is an especially strong creation.
There is occasional, intentional plot disorientation that was interestingly unnecessary, caused by not identifying characters at the beginning of chapters. I don't know why she did this, but I enjoyed it all the same.
I would not read this book before OUTLINE, but it is a fascinating example of Cusk's powers, and equally strong evidence that she made a canny decision in stripping out the weakest points of her fiction.
August 22, 2018
Moving backward through Cusk’s oeuvre I come to this novel featuring flawed suburbanites—couples whom Cusk, in the end, treats gingerly. There is no need to be cruel since we all suffer from some sort of imaginative lapse, whether or not be can recognize our own among those described here. One character is a woman often silent and dressed in black, standing watching, judging, and sometimes relating the action to readers. But she can wear blinkers in her own household, not recognizing how untethered and unsure her husband has become in his role, until he abandons part of it.
This is another of Cusk’s book that begins with a challenge, in this case, the question What is art? Readers will look forward to how this book relates to that question, repeated time and again throughout the narrative, just about the time the reader feels far removed from that promising interrogative start. And the final scene is another of Cusk’s remarkable, unforgettable bloodbaths which recall theatrical roots that seem to underpin much of Cusk’s work.
Three couples, the husbands all brothers, hold special delights for those tracing the effects a father might have on children and grandchildren, though the father, now an old man, is mostly just a memory.
We also get three different views of marriage, four, if you count the parents, still married after all these years. Howard and Claudia seem so unlikely until near the end when we see what holds them together. Leo and Susie limp along together, Leo relying on Susie to interface the world for him, despite her frequent tipping over into barely managing. Tonie has her own job, dresses in black, and generally stands aloof while her husband Thomas struggles with his own identity and sense of self-worth. Each brother is a little jealous of the others, except perhaps Howard, the entrepreneur. He sees the world for what it is and works with it.
This is a wonderful novel filled to overflowing with characterizations of people, of events, of passions, of depressions. We are not necessarily led anywhere—that is, it is essentially plotless, like a life is plotless. But it makes us recognize actions which will lead to an unhappy outcome, barring any intervention. It can be a mirror or a map, depending on where the reader finds him/herself. It is beautifully deft and concise, the prose that brings us the struggles, joys, failures, and ambitions of the Bradshaws. And it features a dog and a piano and an adagio that tick-tocks like a clock. Time is relevant.
This is another of Cusk’s book that begins with a challenge, in this case, the question What is art? Readers will look forward to how this book relates to that question, repeated time and again throughout the narrative, just about the time the reader feels far removed from that promising interrogative start. And the final scene is another of Cusk’s remarkable, unforgettable bloodbaths which recall theatrical roots that seem to underpin much of Cusk’s work.
Three couples, the husbands all brothers, hold special delights for those tracing the effects a father might have on children and grandchildren, though the father, now an old man, is mostly just a memory.
“[Leo] has never heard his father raise his voice. There has been no need to raise it: it is in the leveling persistence that the violence is accomplished…it goes over everything and mechanically levels it, like a tank. It is benign, ruthless, unvarying…His voice has talked in Leo’s head about the world and its ways since he can remember.”The father barely shows in person until that fateful last scene. We realize then that any failures or successes of the now-grown sons probably have little to do with the father after all this time. The range of the boys’ personalities prompt sniggers of recognition among those who have grown up with siblings, so used are we to the way the confident, the envious, and the spoilt interact.
We also get three different views of marriage, four, if you count the parents, still married after all these years. Howard and Claudia seem so unlikely until near the end when we see what holds them together. Leo and Susie limp along together, Leo relying on Susie to interface the world for him, despite her frequent tipping over into barely managing. Tonie has her own job, dresses in black, and generally stands aloof while her husband Thomas struggles with his own identity and sense of self-worth. Each brother is a little jealous of the others, except perhaps Howard, the entrepreneur. He sees the world for what it is and works with it.
This is a wonderful novel filled to overflowing with characterizations of people, of events, of passions, of depressions. We are not necessarily led anywhere—that is, it is essentially plotless, like a life is plotless. But it makes us recognize actions which will lead to an unhappy outcome, barring any intervention. It can be a mirror or a map, depending on where the reader finds him/herself. It is beautifully deft and concise, the prose that brings us the struggles, joys, failures, and ambitions of the Bradshaws. And it features a dog and a piano and an adagio that tick-tocks like a clock. Time is relevant.
June 12, 2022
My favorite Rachel Cusk so far of the three I’ve read. I loved the tone and the writing here, the rhythms of the language, the imagery, the unique and innovative metaphors, the way Cusk puts together sentences and makes connections between ideas in the most unusual and original ways.
The narrative is suffused with musical metaphors, as well as with travel references, as it poses questions about the nature of reality, perception and authenticity, time, and the process of moving through life. Cusk’s descriptions of ordinary things and actions are precise and evocative, while the slipperier, more abstract philosophical concepts are more elusive, but provocative.
The story is told mostly through the viewpoints of Thomas Bradshaw and his wife, Tonie, a middle-class English couple trying to readjust after a shift in roles: he’s a new househusband, with Tonie returned to a full-time job in academia. But lots of time is also given to members of Thomas’ extended family and their POVs, his two brothers, their children, and his parents. There are interludes focused on an outsider, a young woman from Poland who is a boarder in Thomas and Tonie’s house, and his piano teacher. These are people just trying to find their way into the meaning and purpose of their lives and relationships.
The plot is a subtle one and this type of story is not for everyone, but it suited my mood for something thoughtful and beautifully crafted.
The narrative is suffused with musical metaphors, as well as with travel references, as it poses questions about the nature of reality, perception and authenticity, time, and the process of moving through life. Cusk’s descriptions of ordinary things and actions are precise and evocative, while the slipperier, more abstract philosophical concepts are more elusive, but provocative.
The story is told mostly through the viewpoints of Thomas Bradshaw and his wife, Tonie, a middle-class English couple trying to readjust after a shift in roles: he’s a new househusband, with Tonie returned to a full-time job in academia. But lots of time is also given to members of Thomas’ extended family and their POVs, his two brothers, their children, and his parents. There are interludes focused on an outsider, a young woman from Poland who is a boarder in Thomas and Tonie’s house, and his piano teacher. These are people just trying to find their way into the meaning and purpose of their lives and relationships.
The plot is a subtle one and this type of story is not for everyone, but it suited my mood for something thoughtful and beautifully crafted.
December 3, 2009
Apparently some people deem Rachel Rusk too clever in her books. I get that, somewhat, in her past work, like In the Fold. In that one she brandishes here cleverness with long sentences and very, very long conversations. Here, in her new work, she has tempered such lengthiness, somewhat. Sentences are still long, but for the most part they are now shorter and more immediate in their directness and mood.
Basically her novel is about the lives of the Bradshaw clan, particularly Thomas and his wife Antonia, or Tonie as he calls her. Thomas is taking a sabbatical from work, for a year, to take care of their daughter Alexa, while Tonie goes off to head a department in her university, after her promotion. Thomas wants to learn how to play the piano. Meanwhile Tonie, working late, gets propositioned by good-looking visiting lecturers, and finally succumbs to one. As if this is a punishment for straying, she hears bad news about her daughter, when she is taken ill with meningitis and loses part of her hearing. We, the readers, ask, Are they good parents?
This is also the question we ask of Thomas’s other two brothers, Howard and Leo, and their wives, and their parents. To answer for one pair, we see that Mrs Bradshaw doesn’t quite take to Tonie. Claudia, Howard’s wife, thinks taking care of her children has caused her her artistic career.
Don’t start on this book looking for any solid plot, and there is not any, really. All the reader does throughout this not so lengthy novel is step into the Bradshaws’ world of thoughts and observations. However, savour the way Cusk writes – need I say again – so cleverly. A story without plot, this novel, nevertheless, gets your attention with fine details about domestic lives that appear so very normal on the surface, while beneath, deep emotions hover and simmer. Cusk carries these emotions so effortlessly, as per usual, in her so clever way.
Basically her novel is about the lives of the Bradshaw clan, particularly Thomas and his wife Antonia, or Tonie as he calls her. Thomas is taking a sabbatical from work, for a year, to take care of their daughter Alexa, while Tonie goes off to head a department in her university, after her promotion. Thomas wants to learn how to play the piano. Meanwhile Tonie, working late, gets propositioned by good-looking visiting lecturers, and finally succumbs to one. As if this is a punishment for straying, she hears bad news about her daughter, when she is taken ill with meningitis and loses part of her hearing. We, the readers, ask, Are they good parents?
This is also the question we ask of Thomas’s other two brothers, Howard and Leo, and their wives, and their parents. To answer for one pair, we see that Mrs Bradshaw doesn’t quite take to Tonie. Claudia, Howard’s wife, thinks taking care of her children has caused her her artistic career.
Don’t start on this book looking for any solid plot, and there is not any, really. All the reader does throughout this not so lengthy novel is step into the Bradshaws’ world of thoughts and observations. However, savour the way Cusk writes – need I say again – so cleverly. A story without plot, this novel, nevertheless, gets your attention with fine details about domestic lives that appear so very normal on the surface, while beneath, deep emotions hover and simmer. Cusk carries these emotions so effortlessly, as per usual, in her so clever way.
May 18, 2019
Cusk is brilliant at suggesting an entire life in a few careful sentences. Here is the eldest Bradshaw brother:
Cusk also understands women. Thomas's wife Tonie recalls the beginning of their relationship:
So there is much to admire in this novel. Still, I found the narrative voice a bit beady-eyed and unsympathetic at times. Sentences like:
Howard is a person whose jesting nature, which seemed when he was young to connote a disregard for convention in all its forms, has suffused his adult life with an atmosphere of irony in which his more-than-average conservatism wears the vague disguise of a joke. Thomas [the middle Bradshaw brother] sometimes wonders whether his belief that Howard is different from other people is nourished solely by the backgrounds against which he sees him; whether, in a different setting, he might perceive that Howard is, after all, ordinary, and not just pretending to be. (p. 28)The passage I've just quoted also reveals another of Cusk's abilities, and that is to show obliquely, via the observing eye of another character, what someone is like.
Cusk also understands women. Thomas's wife Tonie recalls the beginning of their relationship:
While he gave unfettered expression to his guilt, his anxiety, his conception of honour, she suppressed the small, indignant voice that told her she was entitled, while taking the risk of love, to his full attention. (p. 100)Who hasn't been there?
So there is much to admire in this novel. Still, I found the narrative voice a bit beady-eyed and unsympathetic at times. Sentences like:
He sees her, a nondescript person with cropped, rigid hair, holding up a tan-colored anorak. Her husband is a tall silent hunk of grey flesh who stands beside her with his giant hands hanging lifelessly at his sides. (p. 176)Or
She sleeps in his bed, beside his body that is like a long white root, firm and forked. He sucks her large breasts in the darkness, while cars roar along the road outside. (p. 202)And yet Cusk's observations on love, the undercurrents of marriage, and way family dynamics echo down the generations are such that I feel sure I'll be reading more of her in future.
September 26, 2009
I enjoyed "The Bradshaw Variations" but somehow it doesn't hit the spot, because the characters don't have enough space to develop properly. There are so many different voices and viewpoints from the wider Bradshaw family that it's hard to focus on the central narrative of Thomas Bradshaw and his wife Tonie. Thomas has given up his job to allow Tonie to become head of the English department at a lesser university, and (incomprehensibly, so far as their respective parents and siblings are concerned) Tonie now brings home the bacon while Thomas takes over the school run and experiments with piano lessons. In the course of the novel we also delve into the lives of Thomas' elder brother Howard and his wife Claudia, younger brother Leo and his (seemingly alcoholic) wife Susie, and dissatisfied elderly parents. I found it slightly frustrating to see almost as much of the ostensibly lesser characters as we do of Tonie and Thomas, as the result is that no-one gets the attention they deserve within what is, after all, a fairly slender volume (249 pages). I have therefore been left feeling unsure whether I really "know" any of the characters, and rather wishing that I did. But a pleasant enough read despite that.
July 5, 2010
I have loved Rachel Cusk ever since Grace recommended The Country Life to me many years ago, and this novel, her newest, didn't disappoint me. Like the last couple of her books I've read, including Arlington Park, this one deals largely with parenting, with parents trying to hold onto their identities or reinvent themselves after having children... but in a larger sense it's also about people struggling to understand their lives. Everything in Rachel Cusk's books--moments, converstions, pieces of furniture--seems supercharged with emotion, usually of the dark, complex variety. Occasionally it's hard to believe that her characters are really thinking and feeling to such a great extent over, say, a cup of coffee. But mostly they are believable and sympathetic, and they're always fascinating.
February 21, 2017
2.5 stars. Too short in my opinion.
July 3, 2019
I am working my way backwards through Cusk's body of work, so I can see how she made the giant leap from this to her breakthrough with Outline, Transit, and Kudos. The omniscient narrator of The Bradshaw Variations entirely withholds judgment of the characters, whose inner monologues she describes with cold, clinical, cutting intelligence. The novel strings together short elliptical narratives of (mostly) male characters leading unexamined lives in English suburbia: a bullying father, stunted sons, frustrated wives, underdisciplined children. Cusk illuminates their blind spots and foibles, with a keen eye for gender dynamics in middle-aged married couples with children.
May 20, 2010
I thought The Bradshaw Variations was an incredibly moving book. Cusk's remarkable way of identifying and describing emotions allowed me to relate to each character in some way. While they were all connected, the characters were also painfully isolated by their own unique circumstances. As Cusk turned the spotlight on each one, I was able to understand Olga's homesickness, Tonie's restlessness, and Thomas's yearn for truth, etc. I hope someone is already writing the screenplay based on this fantastic book, and I look forward to reading other works by Rachel Cusk.
June 21, 2024
A suburban English family saga filled with darkly comedic moments. An exhausting novel that describes the difficulties of family life with that typical Cusk precision.
November 27, 2017
Rachel Cusk shows us a family. If you are of a reflective bent, you can draw your own conclusions about identity and the roles of men and women. Alternatively you can just watch with interest, amusement, or horror, as a family reveals itself from multiple viewpoints. The writing is beautiful, without being so self-consciously clever that it fails to suit characters who might not be showily clever. We watch through the eyes of - amongst others - university tutors, children, or young Polish lodgers who clean hospitals and prefer magazines to books. In each case the writing suits the narrator.
It might seem that this is a disconnected story, with no central character, no real plot, and no overt message. Music, however, holds this show together. One family member, Thomas, has taken time out of his career to look after a young daughter and learn the piano. Music represents both freedom and discipline. Thomas tries to learn a piece from The Well Tempered Clavier, a collection of music written by J.S. Bach in 1722. The Well Tempered Clavier was a turning point in musical history, representing the final standardisation of tuning. From that point on, musicians could play together in large, sophisticated groups. The Bradshaws are a large group who somehow get along, finding that oddly musical compromise between the random and the monotonous. The Bradshaws include rigid, traditionally-minded old fools, modern career women who hate their careers, house-husbands who know nothing about house-work, frustrated wives who drink too much, or who love the idea of being an artist whilst they secretly prefer chaotic family life with an impulsive husband, two long-suffering children, and a manic dog who pees, vomits and hurls himself at doors which he always wants to be on the other side of. They all live together like musicians in some kind of experimental jazz band. By extension people generally might be considered to live together in a similar way. Bravo I say.
It might seem that this is a disconnected story, with no central character, no real plot, and no overt message. Music, however, holds this show together. One family member, Thomas, has taken time out of his career to look after a young daughter and learn the piano. Music represents both freedom and discipline. Thomas tries to learn a piece from The Well Tempered Clavier, a collection of music written by J.S. Bach in 1722. The Well Tempered Clavier was a turning point in musical history, representing the final standardisation of tuning. From that point on, musicians could play together in large, sophisticated groups. The Bradshaws are a large group who somehow get along, finding that oddly musical compromise between the random and the monotonous. The Bradshaws include rigid, traditionally-minded old fools, modern career women who hate their careers, house-husbands who know nothing about house-work, frustrated wives who drink too much, or who love the idea of being an artist whilst they secretly prefer chaotic family life with an impulsive husband, two long-suffering children, and a manic dog who pees, vomits and hurls himself at doors which he always wants to be on the other side of. They all live together like musicians in some kind of experimental jazz band. By extension people generally might be considered to live together in a similar way. Bravo I say.
January 17, 2022
The Bradshaw Variations is Cusk’s seventh novel, and her last prior to the Outline trilogy of 2014. Its deceptively simple title betrays much about the text: whilst ostensibly about the relationship between Thomas Bradshaw and his wife Tonie after Thomas agrees to become a stay-at-home father, Cusk’s focus is really on variations of a pervasive kind of dissatisfaction and anomie that often feels pathological in families, examined via the three Bradshaw brothers and their spouses and children. Indeed, the source of the three Bradshaw sons’ unhappiness (the fact of which is rarely made explicit but which nonetheless emerges as an incontestable reality as the novel progresses) can be traced back, albeit obliquely, to their quietly imperious, bullying father and their quietly seething, resentful mother, both of whom cast the kind of barely detectable gloom over their children that might be associated with a Sunday evening, a faint headache, or a depressingly unforthcoming conversation with an old friend: the reason they induce such ennui is somehow both elusive and patently, depressingly clear.
The first half of the novel is satisfying replete with all of the stylistic traits that are so definitively Cusk - a polite, genteel curtness, a predilection for conversations or occurrences that are farcical, but only subtly so, a caustic, analytical eye, and an unwillingness to hide her cleverness that can make her appear elitist and frightening. Cusk writes the kind of domestic realism that strives so successfully for verisimilitude, it somehow manages to transcend the bleakness or cynicism so often associated with the genre; her novels appear as cool, composed statements on what simply IS, despite the fact that the world she describes and inhabits is, in reality, a fairly specific one. Indeed, The Bradshaw Variations takes place in what I have come to recognise as a prototypically Cuskian landscape: atemporal, stunned, sun-drenched, and abounding with draft-filled, narrow houses (often in the midst of inexplicit ‘renovations’ which seem unlikely ever to finish) . Cusk’s greatest strength - what the Guardian terms the “skewering quality” of her observation - is at its best here. Characters like Claudia (whose very existence appears to be defined by a desire to get to her ‘studio’, the frustration of which she laments so often and so publicly that the sharpness of her need seems questionable) and Tonie (who is remote but not absent-minded, vacant but not unperturbed in a way that appears frighteningly familiar) are drawn with neither scorn nor compassion, but soberly, as if Cusk has resigned herself with good humour to a task she feels she has no choice but to complete. Cusk ignores the ‘show but don’t tell’ dictate and somehow does both, something that seems to aggravate critics but which is nearly always effective. For example, when the narrator observes - of 8 year old Alexa - that she “wants her mother to think she is the type of girl who smiles in her sleep”, I recognised, with sudden and aching acuity, the formlessness, loneliness and romance of childhood.
Cusk’s writing is just as caustic and sharp throughout the novel’s second half, but I found the series of darkly-comic, farcical ‘shocks’ used to conclude the narrative arbitrary and often unsatisfying, and it seems clear that suspense is not the author’s strong point - I couldn’t help but think that Cusk herself was somewhat disinterested in the disturbing ‘events’ that take place towards the novel’s denouement. Olga and Leo - both characters I found very compelling - felt abandoned, although Thomas’s (slightly meta!) conversation with Olga at the hospital about “unhappy” literature is ironically brilliant. Perhaps Cusk’s attempt to tackle three dissatisfied, atrophying couples - rather than her usual one - was a little ambitious, but the novel’s kaleidoscopic examination of a family remains incisive and recognisable. Overall, The Bradshaw Variations dissects the various knotted impulses and perversions of big families as well as the best of “unhappy books”.
The first half of the novel is satisfying replete with all of the stylistic traits that are so definitively Cusk - a polite, genteel curtness, a predilection for conversations or occurrences that are farcical, but only subtly so, a caustic, analytical eye, and an unwillingness to hide her cleverness that can make her appear elitist and frightening. Cusk writes the kind of domestic realism that strives so successfully for verisimilitude, it somehow manages to transcend the bleakness or cynicism so often associated with the genre; her novels appear as cool, composed statements on what simply IS, despite the fact that the world she describes and inhabits is, in reality, a fairly specific one. Indeed, The Bradshaw Variations takes place in what I have come to recognise as a prototypically Cuskian landscape: atemporal, stunned, sun-drenched, and abounding with draft-filled, narrow houses (often in the midst of inexplicit ‘renovations’ which seem unlikely ever to finish) . Cusk’s greatest strength - what the Guardian terms the “skewering quality” of her observation - is at its best here. Characters like Claudia (whose very existence appears to be defined by a desire to get to her ‘studio’, the frustration of which she laments so often and so publicly that the sharpness of her need seems questionable) and Tonie (who is remote but not absent-minded, vacant but not unperturbed in a way that appears frighteningly familiar) are drawn with neither scorn nor compassion, but soberly, as if Cusk has resigned herself with good humour to a task she feels she has no choice but to complete. Cusk ignores the ‘show but don’t tell’ dictate and somehow does both, something that seems to aggravate critics but which is nearly always effective. For example, when the narrator observes - of 8 year old Alexa - that she “wants her mother to think she is the type of girl who smiles in her sleep”, I recognised, with sudden and aching acuity, the formlessness, loneliness and romance of childhood.
Cusk’s writing is just as caustic and sharp throughout the novel’s second half, but I found the series of darkly-comic, farcical ‘shocks’ used to conclude the narrative arbitrary and often unsatisfying, and it seems clear that suspense is not the author’s strong point - I couldn’t help but think that Cusk herself was somewhat disinterested in the disturbing ‘events’ that take place towards the novel’s denouement. Olga and Leo - both characters I found very compelling - felt abandoned, although Thomas’s (slightly meta!) conversation with Olga at the hospital about “unhappy” literature is ironically brilliant. Perhaps Cusk’s attempt to tackle three dissatisfied, atrophying couples - rather than her usual one - was a little ambitious, but the novel’s kaleidoscopic examination of a family remains incisive and recognisable. Overall, The Bradshaw Variations dissects the various knotted impulses and perversions of big families as well as the best of “unhappy books”.
February 10, 2011
"September is a skewering place, the heart, where the pin of routine is thrust in" (7).
"His heart clenches, just as it does when the music gains its highest note, grasping and grasping out of its own confusion until it reaches its mark and the screw of emotion is turned. The confusion, he sees, is necessary, for it is what the resolution is born from" (9).
"It is steep, so that the bottom looks remote from the top, the hazy geometric spill of buildings levelling out below with its drone of traffic and sense of life as something inalienable and general rather than fragile and particular, though close up this illusion is successively unmasked as the moderate scale of the reality becomes clearer" (15).
"...a job for someone like Angela Deacon, who had done it for years; an older woman with a wardrobe full of cashmere and earth tones..." (18).
"...as the flame changed the candle and sent it running over the edge of itself, running and running into new paths as though it sought to be free of what it was, of what it became once more as soon as it reached the air and stiffened in its tracks" (20).
"It's always the same, the difficulty of being himself with these people, his family, the difficulty of locating his own authenticity. He says things he doesn't feel, and what he feels most keenly he doesn't say at all" (59).
"He doesn't think people can ever be as good consciously as they are by instinct..." (71).
"She still doesn't know why he got so excited. He is six-and-a-half feet tall. It is important, when a man that tall throws himself in the air" (186).
"He stops and waits. At last it comes, the trill of a bird joyously piercing it, trilling and trilling, garlanding the still air with a ribbon of song" (234).
"His heart clenches, just as it does when the music gains its highest note, grasping and grasping out of its own confusion until it reaches its mark and the screw of emotion is turned. The confusion, he sees, is necessary, for it is what the resolution is born from" (9).
"It is steep, so that the bottom looks remote from the top, the hazy geometric spill of buildings levelling out below with its drone of traffic and sense of life as something inalienable and general rather than fragile and particular, though close up this illusion is successively unmasked as the moderate scale of the reality becomes clearer" (15).
"...a job for someone like Angela Deacon, who had done it for years; an older woman with a wardrobe full of cashmere and earth tones..." (18).
"...as the flame changed the candle and sent it running over the edge of itself, running and running into new paths as though it sought to be free of what it was, of what it became once more as soon as it reached the air and stiffened in its tracks" (20).
"It's always the same, the difficulty of being himself with these people, his family, the difficulty of locating his own authenticity. He says things he doesn't feel, and what he feels most keenly he doesn't say at all" (59).
"He doesn't think people can ever be as good consciously as they are by instinct..." (71).
"She still doesn't know why he got so excited. He is six-and-a-half feet tall. It is important, when a man that tall throws himself in the air" (186).
"He stops and waits. At last it comes, the trill of a bird joyously piercing it, trilling and trilling, garlanding the still air with a ribbon of song" (234).
August 5, 2010
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Although a little of such stuff goes a long way for me, I do in fact quite enjoy the occasional literary-oriented novel, one that eschews plot developments almost entirely to instead exist as merely a complex character study; take for example veteran character author Rachel Cusk's latest, The Bradshaw Variations, which is not much more than a probing look at an upper-middle-class British family whose spouses spend a year switching roles (the full-time mom enters the world of academic senior management, while the corporate dad spends a year re-engaging in his youthful passion for classical piano), and what kind of effect this has on the family in general, which by extension becomes a look at what the lives are like of their related siblings and their own upper-middle-class British families. As such, then, it's not really Cusk's point to have a lot of stuff "happen," and those who need such a thing in their novels will be profoundly disappointed with this one; it's instead a dense look at the multiple layers of personality that make up each of these fully-realized people, which by the end becomes a deep slice-of-life look at what being a Western middle-classer in the early 2000s is really all about in the first place. A great pick for those who like their literature academic and slow-moving in nature, but that should absolutely be avoided by everyone else.
Out of 10: 8.6
Although a little of such stuff goes a long way for me, I do in fact quite enjoy the occasional literary-oriented novel, one that eschews plot developments almost entirely to instead exist as merely a complex character study; take for example veteran character author Rachel Cusk's latest, The Bradshaw Variations, which is not much more than a probing look at an upper-middle-class British family whose spouses spend a year switching roles (the full-time mom enters the world of academic senior management, while the corporate dad spends a year re-engaging in his youthful passion for classical piano), and what kind of effect this has on the family in general, which by extension becomes a look at what the lives are like of their related siblings and their own upper-middle-class British families. As such, then, it's not really Cusk's point to have a lot of stuff "happen," and those who need such a thing in their novels will be profoundly disappointed with this one; it's instead a dense look at the multiple layers of personality that make up each of these fully-realized people, which by the end becomes a deep slice-of-life look at what being a Western middle-classer in the early 2000s is really all about in the first place. A great pick for those who like their literature academic and slow-moving in nature, but that should absolutely be avoided by everyone else.
Out of 10: 8.6
June 7, 2016
A searching and beautifully written dissection of the stresses and tensions in the lives of an ordinary middle class extended family.
Read
October 14, 2019A cold exercise of narrative that runs between members of the Bradshaw family, torn between irritation at their stultifying familial roles and the insulation that living as part of a whole offers from reality.
It was interesting reading this so soon after The Real Thing by Stoppard and Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler, two other texts which explore the boundaries between self and the ones you love. What is love and what is habit?
I hit upon a section which reminded a lot of her later Outline trilogy:
"It strikes her now that life is not linear, a journey, a passage, but a static process of irreversible accretion. It is perspective that moves, passing over it all like the sun, now illuminating, now casting into shadow. The angle changes, the relation of one thing to another, the proportion of dark to light; but experience itself is block-like, is cumulative and fixed." 99
.
.
.
.
.
.
"He has not asked them one question about themselves: she and Claudia do not exist for him, they are just lines of perspective, ways for him to measure his location in space." 93
"It is true that Thomas is increasingly preoccupied by the mystery of other people's abilities. He can hardly bring himself to listen any more to his Glen Gould recordings, to his Clifford Curzon boxed set, to Feinstein's indistinct primordial account of Bach, so swamped does he become in the knowledge that these men are vastly more capable than himself. And it isn't just music, either: the same feeling besieges him when he considers literature or painting, when he leafs through the photographs in his Encyclopedia of World Art, a feeling that is beyond jealousy, that is a sort of sulkiness. All these others, born just as he was, into the same world: they are all better, more capable, more exceptional than he is." 118
It was interesting reading this so soon after The Real Thing by Stoppard and Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler, two other texts which explore the boundaries between self and the ones you love. What is love and what is habit?
I hit upon a section which reminded a lot of her later Outline trilogy:
"It strikes her now that life is not linear, a journey, a passage, but a static process of irreversible accretion. It is perspective that moves, passing over it all like the sun, now illuminating, now casting into shadow. The angle changes, the relation of one thing to another, the proportion of dark to light; but experience itself is block-like, is cumulative and fixed." 99
.
.
.
.
.
.
"He has not asked them one question about themselves: she and Claudia do not exist for him, they are just lines of perspective, ways for him to measure his location in space." 93
"It is true that Thomas is increasingly preoccupied by the mystery of other people's abilities. He can hardly bring himself to listen any more to his Glen Gould recordings, to his Clifford Curzon boxed set, to Feinstein's indistinct primordial account of Bach, so swamped does he become in the knowledge that these men are vastly more capable than himself. And it isn't just music, either: the same feeling besieges him when he considers literature or painting, when he leafs through the photographs in his Encyclopedia of World Art, a feeling that is beyond jealousy, that is a sort of sulkiness. All these others, born just as he was, into the same world: they are all better, more capable, more exceptional than he is." 118
June 17, 2012
Bad Sign: "She wonders why everyone here is so formless and anonymous. Their bodies look lumpy in the dusk, their faces featureless and indifferent as stones. The lack of excitement almost frightens her." (p. 198)
When a reader reads the above lines and retorts, "Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm kinda there myself now that you mention it..." then there is a problem.
I'm totally willing to man-up (is that the correct usage for "man-up"? I've never really "manned-up" in anything, or been exhorted to "man-up", but I hear it is a term of accepting burdens or responsibilities) that I'm to blame - maybe I'm not the right reader for this book at this time. But I never really understood what the point/message of the little vignettes of the Bradshaw family added up to.
Perhaps it was that unlike a sonata or a symphony, where themes are developed to a point or resolution, in a piece composed of variations, it is just the same theme viewed in different ways. But it didn't seem like that, I didn't see much variation on a theme. Just different members of the family doing not very interesting stuff that didn't really go anywhere. I guess that's life.
When a reader reads the above lines and retorts, "Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm kinda there myself now that you mention it..." then there is a problem.
I'm totally willing to man-up (is that the correct usage for "man-up"? I've never really "manned-up" in anything, or been exhorted to "man-up", but I hear it is a term of accepting burdens or responsibilities) that I'm to blame - maybe I'm not the right reader for this book at this time. But I never really understood what the point/message of the little vignettes of the Bradshaw family added up to.
Perhaps it was that unlike a sonata or a symphony, where themes are developed to a point or resolution, in a piece composed of variations, it is just the same theme viewed in different ways. But it didn't seem like that, I didn't see much variation on a theme. Just different members of the family doing not very interesting stuff that didn't really go anywhere. I guess that's life.
August 8, 2021
2.5/5
i'm not too sure about this one. which is disappointing because i LOVED second place.
the main story follows thomas taking a year off work to be a househusband while his wife tonie comes into a full time position as a department head at a university but it's still not clear to me what point cusk was trying to make.
clearly, i'm not smart enough to fully grasp what cusk is trying to say here because this was a little too all over the place for me. the book felt like vignettes into the thoughts and lives of the bradshaws but every time i thought something interesting was brought up, the idea never developed further.
the book is written multiple in povs but that didn't work for me because this book is too short to have so much focus on the secondary characters. i had a hard time caring about and keeping up with any of the characters because none of them were developed fully. also i don't think the secondary storylines didn't add anything to the main plot.
that being said, 1) i do love rachel cusk's writing style and 2) i'd be interested in rereading this one in the future just to see if i'd changed my mind about it.
i'm not too sure about this one. which is disappointing because i LOVED second place.
the main story follows thomas taking a year off work to be a househusband while his wife tonie comes into a full time position as a department head at a university but it's still not clear to me what point cusk was trying to make.
clearly, i'm not smart enough to fully grasp what cusk is trying to say here because this was a little too all over the place for me. the book felt like vignettes into the thoughts and lives of the bradshaws but every time i thought something interesting was brought up, the idea never developed further.
the book is written multiple in povs but that didn't work for me because this book is too short to have so much focus on the secondary characters. i had a hard time caring about and keeping up with any of the characters because none of them were developed fully. also i don't think the secondary storylines didn't add anything to the main plot.
that being said, 1) i do love rachel cusk's writing style and 2) i'd be interested in rereading this one in the future just to see if i'd changed my mind about it.
June 17, 2010
Cusk's searing, incisive novels have earned comparisons to Virginia Woolf's for their astute recreations of women's inner lives as they collide with society's expectations. Unfortunately, most critics concluded that Cusk's seventh novel does not live up to the sum of its parts. Despite vivid characters, crisp prose, and sharp psychological insights, the plot lacks tension, while subplots and minor characters drop from the narrative without explanation, and the Bradshaws seem strangely unconvincing. "Really," argues the Boston Globe, "how deeply can we care about a family whose defining characteristic is a lack of warmth toward one another?" Despite these shortcomings, Cusk's fans may pick up The Bradshaw Variations for her eloquence and wry humor. Others may wish to steer clear of her latest. This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
August 31, 2013
Although the writing is beautiful with evocative language and imagery, I found this overall to be a disheartening read. It is primarily a collection of random glimpses into the psyches of a group of characters who are related to one another by blood or marriage, but not by any discernible affection. All seem to be relentlessly self-obsessed; they float through privileged yet mundane lives, pitying themselves for their own purposelessness, rehearsing negativity, mired in disappointment. Though at 234 pages the novel should be a quick read, I couldn't wait to be finished and escape the Bradshaw's black hole of a world. Several times I came very close to giving up on it, and certainly don't feel that anything was gained by seeing it through.
August 8, 2020
Really, really liked this one. There were probably a few too many characters (it was confusing at times) but in this novel, Cusk explores the complexities of human emotions and loyalties in relationships, both romantic and familial. I loved it and found it quite poignant. It was also darkly funny and sometimes a bit gross.
December 23, 2018
De hecho, ni la termino de leer:
Las variaciones Bradshaw, de Rachel Cusk
Las variaciones Bradshaw, de Rachel Cusk
January 2, 2022
Não poderia começar melhor o ano com esta leitura.
Rachel Cusk é uma escritora excepcional.
Nesse livro, embora não tenha narrador personagem, a cada capítulo, temos uma narração em terceira pessoa na perspectiva de algum personagem - todos da família ou conectados aos Bradshaw. Os ângulos que Rachel Cusk nos propõe formam uma complexidade magnífica de cada personagem.
A discussão sobre arte, sobre o que é real e ficcional, é interessantíssima.
“(…) A vida é uma perspectiva que se move, passando por cima de tudo feito o sol, ora iluminando, ora lançando sombras. O ângulo muda, a relação de uma coisa com outra, a proporção de escuridão em relação à luz; mas a experiência em si é como um bloco, cumulativa e fixa” (p. 109)
Rachel Cusk é uma escritora excepcional.
Nesse livro, embora não tenha narrador personagem, a cada capítulo, temos uma narração em terceira pessoa na perspectiva de algum personagem - todos da família ou conectados aos Bradshaw. Os ângulos que Rachel Cusk nos propõe formam uma complexidade magnífica de cada personagem.
A discussão sobre arte, sobre o que é real e ficcional, é interessantíssima.
“(…) A vida é uma perspectiva que se move, passando por cima de tudo feito o sol, ora iluminando, ora lançando sombras. O ângulo muda, a relação de uma coisa com outra, a proporção de escuridão em relação à luz; mas a experiência em si é como um bloco, cumulativa e fixa” (p. 109)
October 10, 2017
If you are bored of plot driven narrative stories and enjoy really getting beneath the skin of a character then this is the novel for you as Rachel Cusk probes our contemporary world and all its mores. Her characters are so well drawn, and their voices so acutely observed, they stay with you, long after you have finished the novel, and demand the reader’s full attention.
Outwardly, the Bradshaws are a very English middle class family enjoying a degree of comfort and respectability but they are a cast of disparate characters all examined closely by Rachel Cusk in a gripping account where the cracks and fissures are appearing. Each different member of the family is put under the microscope as they go about their daily lives amid the chaos of modern day living, while striving for personal fulfilment and happiness. Relationships, marriages and parenting are all examined and the element of control is at the heart of the novel. Various characters try and regain control of their own lives and control others around them, while reluctant to acknowledge the ageing process is bringing with it not greater happiness but merely the onset of anxiety and depression.
Three generations of the Bradshaw Family are put under scrutiny and all are victims, to a greater or lesser degree of self delusion, anxiety and depression. Mr and Mrs Bradshaw, now in their sixties can barely tolerate one another as they grow increasingly embittered, experiencing loss of physical energy and becoming short tempered and and impatient with one another. Their intolerance is not limited to frustrations with their own marriage but extends to being critical of each of their three siblings - Thomas, Howard and Leo - and their choice of partners.
Thomas and Antonia, ‘Tonie’, have agreed on role reversals in their parenting arrangements of their daughter, Alexa, a lonely child neglected by all her family . Thomas becomes a ‘house-husband’ and struggles to find the right balance between devotion to his daughter, his own personal growth and fulfilment ( resumption of his piano playing and musical career) and to the everyday chores which are also neglected. His wife, Tonie, takes on a senior responsibility in the local college and she, too, strives for personal fulfilment and realises life has passed her by and that she has been too closed to new experiences for too long. She is vulnerable and succumbs to impulsive desires. Howard and Claudia are pretty chaotic and like to be spontaneous as they think life, for themselves and their children, should be both exciting and filled with opportunity and open to fresh experience. Leo and Susie seem still even more haphazard but they endure, despite seemingly poles apart in personality.
Cusk’s preoccupation with all these relationships is to show the distances and disconnects, the loss of innocence and growing sense of deeper despair. Seasons pass and autumn returns and poor put upon Claudia can only look wistfully at the summer house in the garden and bemoan that she still hasn’t taken up her hobby of painting. Like all the other members of the family she has deluded herself and her aspirations and ambitions will remain unfulfilled dreams.
Outwardly, the Bradshaws are a very English middle class family enjoying a degree of comfort and respectability but they are a cast of disparate characters all examined closely by Rachel Cusk in a gripping account where the cracks and fissures are appearing. Each different member of the family is put under the microscope as they go about their daily lives amid the chaos of modern day living, while striving for personal fulfilment and happiness. Relationships, marriages and parenting are all examined and the element of control is at the heart of the novel. Various characters try and regain control of their own lives and control others around them, while reluctant to acknowledge the ageing process is bringing with it not greater happiness but merely the onset of anxiety and depression.
Three generations of the Bradshaw Family are put under scrutiny and all are victims, to a greater or lesser degree of self delusion, anxiety and depression. Mr and Mrs Bradshaw, now in their sixties can barely tolerate one another as they grow increasingly embittered, experiencing loss of physical energy and becoming short tempered and and impatient with one another. Their intolerance is not limited to frustrations with their own marriage but extends to being critical of each of their three siblings - Thomas, Howard and Leo - and their choice of partners.
Thomas and Antonia, ‘Tonie’, have agreed on role reversals in their parenting arrangements of their daughter, Alexa, a lonely child neglected by all her family . Thomas becomes a ‘house-husband’ and struggles to find the right balance between devotion to his daughter, his own personal growth and fulfilment ( resumption of his piano playing and musical career) and to the everyday chores which are also neglected. His wife, Tonie, takes on a senior responsibility in the local college and she, too, strives for personal fulfilment and realises life has passed her by and that she has been too closed to new experiences for too long. She is vulnerable and succumbs to impulsive desires. Howard and Claudia are pretty chaotic and like to be spontaneous as they think life, for themselves and their children, should be both exciting and filled with opportunity and open to fresh experience. Leo and Susie seem still even more haphazard but they endure, despite seemingly poles apart in personality.
Cusk’s preoccupation with all these relationships is to show the distances and disconnects, the loss of innocence and growing sense of deeper despair. Seasons pass and autumn returns and poor put upon Claudia can only look wistfully at the summer house in the garden and bemoan that she still hasn’t taken up her hobby of painting. Like all the other members of the family she has deluded herself and her aspirations and ambitions will remain unfulfilled dreams.
November 8, 2009
The style is all; richly metaphorical, terrifically dense and complex - this book should be read for the sheer enjoyment of the beauty of the writing because there isn’t really any story, at heart it’s a character study, a group of normal lives, woven together by the mundane and everyday.
I found the characters got lost in all the writing. They sit in the great web of it, unable to move much under the weight of metaphor which ultimately left a great coldness around them. I never felt any attachment to these mostly unsympathetic, dislikeable people and didn’t really care what happened to any of them (especially Claudia who I just wanted to destroy, I badly wanted her to die).
Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy the book, I did, but it’s a writer’s book; a book for those who love language and appreciate literate writing for its own sake. I wouldn’t take it to read on the train or a plane, it needs time and space and undisturbed peace to fully appreciate this unusual and quietly remarkable book.
I found the characters got lost in all the writing. They sit in the great web of it, unable to move much under the weight of metaphor which ultimately left a great coldness around them. I never felt any attachment to these mostly unsympathetic, dislikeable people and didn’t really care what happened to any of them (especially Claudia who I just wanted to destroy, I badly wanted her to die).
Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy the book, I did, but it’s a writer’s book; a book for those who love language and appreciate literate writing for its own sake. I wouldn’t take it to read on the train or a plane, it needs time and space and undisturbed peace to fully appreciate this unusual and quietly remarkable book.
March 17, 2011
As I had received this book as part of First Reads, I was basing my interest on the jacket cover description. I don't think the story ever quite matches the jacket text, however I still enjoyed the book for what it was; a microscopic study of an extended family and the day to day events that shape who we are in relation to others.
Parts of this book were so beautifully written or relationships and fleeting individual thoughts so cleverly worded that I would begin to really anticipate something bigger coming, but overall, I was left with a sense of unfinished business. None of the characters were fully alive for me, or perhaps it was that there were too many voices to fully find myself invested in any one of them.
Parts of this book were so beautifully written or relationships and fleeting individual thoughts so cleverly worded that I would begin to really anticipate something bigger coming, but overall, I was left with a sense of unfinished business. None of the characters were fully alive for me, or perhaps it was that there were too many voices to fully find myself invested in any one of them.
March 22, 2011
I was so excited to win this book on Goodreads. The story involves the various crisis within the extended Bradshaw family over the course of a year. The style of writing is rich, detailed, hugely comprehensive and deeply thoughtful but a magnificent style does not ensure that a book will be loved. Given all that: I still was not drawn to the characters. There were so many sinister overtones lurking in every chapter that I felt apprehension turning to the next page. There was no joy in any of their lives and no hope or satisfaction. People are complicated but not that complicated every single day. The emotions were too intense and it had just too much drama and pathos dragging each character farther down. Not a book that I could honestly recommend.
May 7, 2010
this was a little gem and maybe I should have rated it more highly only none of the characters are at all likable. As if all of their faults are fully on view and no redeeming qualities are exposed; none. I found I could not say I really liked it but rather appreciated the author's cleverness. I felt it was more revealing for the author rather than her characters. And I won't think about any of them at all now that I finished reading it.
I am slightly curious about her other books but maybe not too much either.
I am slightly curious about her other books but maybe not too much either.
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