Kasey Jueds's Reviews > The Bradshaw Variations

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.