The cycle constitutes an artistic breakthrough and a triumph within this. But overall, a quiet, gentle musing on the craft of writing. Faye, an unhappily divorced mother who has just moved to London with her children, narrates the novel Outline by Rachel Cusk. Rachel Cusk’s new novel, Kudos, completes the trilogy she began in 2014 with Outline and extended in 2016 with Transit. The narrator was actress Kirsten Scott Thomas and she clearly had to redo some parts from inside a barrel and then whoever had to edit it didn’t put it back together very skillfully, as the sound levels and audio quality were all over the place in spots.

It also made me want to return to my neglected novel project. Following an off-key memoir (Aftermath, 2012), Cusk returns to fiction and top form in a novel about the stories we tell ourselves and others.

I listened to it during my summer staycation and it was afforded me the quiet I was craving, to go around in my own thoughts, weeding the garden or drinking a glass of wine in the greenhouse while hanging out with my favorite cat. I loved the small stories within the story (a writer teaching a writing class was the perfect device for delivering these), that felt a bit like actual writing exercises and made me realize that any experience can become a story, no matter how seemingly trivial. Outline contains a lot of musings on the craft of writing and for that, I found it an inspiring and thoughtful, as well as thought-provoking read.

Outline cusk