Second Place: A Novel

Second Place reminds me of Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, the whole story written in a letter to ‘Jeffrey’. At the end of the novel, Jefrrey still remains a mystery to the reader; it gives a strange feeling of walking through a labyrinth without seeing the exit. Sometimes, I wondered if he wasn’t only an imaginary friend needed for an inner escape. M, our storyteller and main character, was badly in need for an escape, even when she did not really know why.The novel starts in a dark tone – a recollection of memories regarding a man who looked and acted like the devil – but flows beautifully. It brings places and people. It brings feelings, dark reflections about the human nature. Every emotion is analyzed, from any possible angle.M is a fragile woman unable to sort her own life, but her inner laments and tribulations are both sharp and delicious. A visit to an exhibit brings her in front of a painting that will change her life. It doesn’t happen suddenly; she needs some years to finally decide and invite the painter in the house where she lives with her husband; she wants both his art and his presence; there is even a touch of lust in her thoughts. The man’s arrival changes her life indeed; her marriage is almost broken, and M starts to reconsider her previous ‘boring’ life. It doesn’t come easily.

Rachel Cusk always makes me want to understand her difficult narrators though I have nothing in common with them.M is a writer in middle age living in pandemic with her husband Tony. She begins the novella recalling a time in her youth when the works of the artist, L, made her feel alive and real. As pandemic takes hold she invites L to reside in her second place, a comfortable retreat on Tony’s marshland property.When L arrives, with the ingenue, Britt and M’s daughter Justine and her lover arrive, strange alliances form and reform. The one thing M wants is to be a confidante to L, but L is repulsed by her which causes her no end of conflict. M’s personality is sufficiently ridiculous that I was often laughing, but she has her moments of profundity when she is a kindred spirit. Leave it to Rachel Cusk to always bring me back into the human fold.

Rachel Cusk's Second Place is a story of a confused and lost woman who believes she's found the answer to her confusion in the art of an artist named L. The latter is a man, once a successful painter now down on his luck. He has accepted M's invitation to live in a cottage located on property owned by M's husband Tony.M projects her negative self-image onto L who cruelly rejects M's projections. Cusk seems to suggest that M would be a happier person taking back her projections, facing them and integrating them. In fact, M has much to be happy about, having a husband and a daughter who love her. Not an easy novel to read and understand. One can easily get confused and lost, similar to M, in Cusk's beautiful sentences, but the latter don't necessarily constitute resolution. And yet Cusk's prose possesses a mysterious something I can't explain. This is a novel that demands a second reading.

Stunning.I don’t think I’ve read a book that’s made me feel like this before, where you fight the first few sentences in the novel and then immediately sink into the story. I knew I was reading something by a master writer on the first page. I reread paragraph after paragraph because they were so beautiful and well crafted. I have highlights on every page, eventually stopping myself so I could go on reading. It’s a deceptively short book, with meditative writing on art, reality, gendered roles, parenthood, freedom, fulfillment, femininity, beauty and criticism. I’m in awe of how Cusk is able to put into words emotions and questions a person may have, I feel like she looked into my soul. I know this is a book I will repeatedly come back to.

Not my favorite book by Rachel Cusk (whose writing I love) but still a fun read -- especially in combination with Mabel Luhan's Lorenzo in Taos (1932) which seems to have been a template: Similar story of hosting an artist, strange format of a letter addressed to "Jeffers", direct quotes of lines, names and attributes but in different constellations... I enjoyed the layering of the two stories and kept wondering about the variations, how they were significant. As for the strange non-serif font used for print (also discussed in the NYTimes review), I disliked it. All in all a very cool experiment.

A good novel for those who seek poetry in life. Gives a few very just definitions of art and life.

Thoughtful and insightful musings on art, artists and power dynamics between people. There's quite a bit of navel gazing in this short book, but the quality of gazing makes the book an interesting and enjoyable read.

Well, when I first started reading I thought it was really good but after getting about halfway through the plot sort of veered off course and petered out. She also got really into her head and philosophical. I had the feeling she was writing just to get more pages to make it long enough to be a book. And then it picked up a little at the end. The other thing that really put me off was the writer came across as really privileged and entitled. Kinda snobby, actually. Who needs that? I don't. She has talent, for sure, but maybe not enough life experience or heart to make her a writer I'd want to read again. Sorry Rachel. At least you have lots of money, a husband, kids and a nice house. Maybe you should stick to that.

... but on re-read. Reading it for the first time first chapter, i genuienly felt lost. Its modern and relevant, with several literary devices that keep you reading but. The main character and the painter, named L and M, sometimes have outbursts, where i felt so uncomfortable with reading them. They felt so natural, that i felt i was invading someone's privacy just by reading it.

Je m’attendais de mieux après avoir lu sa trilogie .. il n’est pas mal mais certains passages sont un peu ennuyants ..

This is nice. Audio book is better

Weird, confusing,... Not sure what to think of this book. it may be a pretentious work or maybe the characters were genuinely irksome or extravagant, or it’s just my limitations that didn't help me appreciate the masterly work... Or maybe there's a bit of all that.At various times, M was driving on my nerves and the narration's getting intricate. There're hints of sensitivity and depth, a lugubrious atmosphere, reflexions on art, life, relationships, and creativity, lost souls and egos confronted, control and manipulation, ...A merry-go-round of emotions to process. It didn't leave me indifferent, but I need to digest it to know what really was all about. Sincerely, the last note, where she's acknowledging the links with Lorenzo in Taos provides a new dimension to the story and after a few days of reflexion and search I appreciate it more.

The writing was absolutely stunning!!